International Music Video

So pleased to announce that Steampunk Girl has won the International Music Video award at London Independent Film Festival 2015.


This is my first film festival award in any category so it's a major bucket list item ticked off - probably don't need to do the parachute jump or the threesome now.

Shortwave Cinema, the location for most LIFF screenings and events including the awards ceremony and closing party.

Congratulations to all the winners:

No-Budget Feature — THE MILKY WAY by Tor Mian
UK Feature — SOLITARY by Sasha Krane
Best Actor – Pearl Chanda in THE FINAL HAUNTING
Best Director – Simon Blake for STILL
International Feature – VERTICAL by Steven Savage
Sci-Fi/ Horror — UNHALLOWED GROUND by Russell England
Micro-Budget Feature — THE LAST SPARKS OF SUNDOWN by James Kibbey
Documentary — ALFRED AND JAKOBINE by Jonathan Howells
Short Documentary — Jordanne by Zak Razvi
UK Short — BEVERLEY by Alexander Thomas
International Short — THE WHEEL OF TIME by Kagan Kerimoglu
Horror Short — THE HERD by Melanie Light
Sci-Fi Short — AIR by Emma E. Maclennan
LGBT Film — PLAYING THE GAME by Jeremy Timings
Experimental Short — PEEP DISH by Darragh Mortell
Short Short — KILLER ROAD by Marco Clay
Animated Short — MY STUFFED GRANNY by Effie Pappa
UK Music Video — ALL IN THE VALUE by Geej Ower
International Music Video — STEAMPUNK Girl by Joshua Westbury
Best UK Screenplay — THE COMPETITORS by Ruth Greenberg
Best International Screenplay — Shimmy by P.A Flanders
Best Short Screenplay — DREAMS OF TOMORROW by Cindy Walters
Best Screenplay Pitch — ZOG THE MAGNIFICENT by Prahib Sukoro

London Independent Film Festival Preview

As Niels Bohr once said, prediction is very difficult - especially about the future. Still no hyperdrives, flying cars, hoverboards, dolphin translators or dystopian gladiatorial contests, but according to this article head transplants are on the horizon - props to the makers of Worzel Gummidge for being such unexpected visionaries. Someone had their thinking head on...

However I can confidently predict that cinemaphiles will have plenty to enjoy at this year's London Independent Film Festival, which opens this Thursday. Horror fans should check out the programme on Friday 24th April, which includes the haunted-school feature Unhallowed Ground as well as a selection of horror shorts.

For science fiction fans, there will be a selection of sci-fi shorts on Saturday 25th April. Also try and get to the festival on Saturday 18th April, when the programme will include Emma Maclennan's dystopian short film AIR, winner of Phoenix Film Festival's Best Sci-Fi Short Film award earlier this year.


London Independent full programme and tickets here.

"Steampunk Girl" Festival Screenings

Programmes and tickets for both St. Albans Film Festival and London Independent Film Festival are now available on their websites. "Steampunk Girl" will appear at both festivals in their music video events: first at London Independent on Sunday 19th April, then at St. Albans on Saturday 2nd May. I'll post more about these great festivals soon, in the meantime please check out the websites and programmes as both festivals have some great features planned.

When The Cat's Away [Review: Gone]

I previously reviewed The Speed Of Dark, Elizabeth Moon's near-future novel about adults with autism, here. As this week is World Autism Awareness Week I've chosen to review another novel featuring a character with autism: Gone by Michael Grant.

Suddenly and without warning or special effects of any kind, all the adults and over-15s living in Sam Temple's town Perdido Beach have disappeared. A mysterious barrier has also appeared around the town so no-one can leave or contact the outside world in any way. And there's more: Sam, and some of the other children have developed a range of superpowers, apparently before the disappearance.

Gone is the first book in Michael Grant's popular series of novels for young adults, set in a present-day world without adults. While the novel explores this scenario, introduces Sam and his companions and other less likeable children, and sets up a long list of mysteries to be revealed later in the series, it also explores some satisfyingly heavy themes. It's been written into international law that all YA fiction must be about social inequality, and Gone is no exception, but as it's set in the present day, the social tensions are perfectly familiar: attitudes towards immigrants, religious intolerance and the gap between rich and poor parts of town, rather than futuristic factions or districts.

Grant is a confident writer, able to tackle real-world subjects that some authors seem to avoid or allegorize: including religious tension and also discrimination over mental illness. A minor character is a teenager with bulimia, and Sam's allies include Astrid and her young brother Pete who is portrayed as severely autistic - either unable or unwilling to communicate most of the time and severely distressed by raised voices or other disturbances. There's a strong protective bond between Pete and Astrid, and without too much infodumping Astrid is still able to communicate the nature of autism to the others (and to the reader.)

The scenario is not particularly original: superficial elements may have been "borrowed" from Stephen King's Under The Dome and the many, many teenage-superpower books and films. It succeeds in mixing these elements to create something that feels fresh, and is willing to take the reader into a fairly dark place - it would be fair to describe Gone as a re-imagined Lord Of The Flies. It's a gripping read that also has something meaningful to say.

"Steampunk Girl" Screening: London Independent Film Festival

Some great news: "Steampunk Girl" is on the official selection for London Independent Film Festival 2015! This will be my second LIFF screening (the first was "2007" shown at LIFF 2012) and I'm really looking forward to being back. I'll post details of the screening and festival programme as soon as they become available.

Hi Honey, I'm Home [Review: The Bees]

Flora 717 is born to a life of drudgery as a sanitation worker, the lowest caste in a walled, fascist Queendom where only a lucky few foragers and drones get to see the outside world. She's an outsider due to her abilities - she can literally talk, unlike the rest of her caste, she is intelligent and questioning, and she has ideas above her station - and if the guards or the Fertility Police don't stop her, she just might be the cause of a revolution one day. Yes, this is every YA dystopian novel scenario ever, rolled into one book - but Flora 717 is a bee, and just for once the scenario actually makes sense.

Laline Paull's novel follows in a great tradition of anthropomorphization - Animal Farm, Watership Down. There are one or two flights of fancy - the chambers of the beehive have doors and scent-coded floor panels, the police have visors and gauntlets, and the bees have a jet engine in their abdomen. This last might be a reference to the old idea of scientists being convinced that bees could not fly - but as we all know, the 2005 Altshuler study (abstract here) put that one to rest. I mean, it's always seemed obvious to me that unsteady forces during stroke reversal would make a large contribution to net upward force during hovering, but then what do I know? I'm just a drone...

This book can be enjoyed twice - first by reading it and then by fact-checking it. With the exception of the doors and the jet engines, it was a lot of fun discovering that almost every concept in the plot is factually accurate with very little embroidery. Take the wide range of worker castes and activities - or the scent produced by a Queen which keeps the entire hive loyal - or the lazy drone lifestyle - or the winter cluster - or the not-so-royal behaviour of newly hatched Princesses - or even Flora 717's secret, it's all there in the real-life complexity of honey bee society.

St. Albans - Short Film Selection

St. Albans Film Festival website is live! The full programme is yet to be announced but they've published the short film selection here. Steampunk Girl will be screened in the Music Video event.