As anyone who’s been watching BBC3′s Mongrels can attest, foul mouthed animals are a mine of comedic potential.

Another offering from Chris and Ben Blaine for C film, Hallo Panda is a comedy of unrequited love and panda husbandry.

The film follows inept zoologist Mark (Stephen Beckingham), as he struggles with the two main problems in his life.

First, he is hopeless besotted with moth expert Sarah (Cariad Lloyd) – and secondly, he is totally failing to convince a panda (Benedict Wong) to mate in order to save its own species.

As with most Blaine Brother films, Hallo Panda is without much in the way of serious problems – It’s a good, solid, occasionally outrageous comedy that revels in its own ridiculousness.

It requires the viewer to accept that this isn’t meant to be our world, but a strange doppelganger of it where scientists always wear their lab coats to the pub and where a panda can talk – and at the end of the day you don’t need any explanation for it.

Though providing plenty of laughs, the lion’s share of them goes to Benedict Wong as Panda. Where most of the other characters are perfunctory, Panda is an absolutely wonderful antagonist, who refuses to mate to save his species because he’s not in the mood.

Sadly, he is also Mark’s only friend and some of the sweetest scenes in the film come when Panda offers Mark advice on his love life. These scenes are played almost straight, and it’s easy to forget you’re watching a panda and a zoologist rather than two mates down the pub.

Hallo Panda requires something of a suspension of disbelief but it’s well worth trying to catch if you’re passing C Soco this August.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Hallo Panda will be shown weekly from the 3^rd to the 30^th of August at C soco urban garden. The screenings are free to the public.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
C FILM REVIEWS – Film at the Edinburgh Fringe, Hand Island, Thank You Skinhead Girl, Hip Hip Hooray, Knock Knock and The End of the Pier Show

Death of the Revolution is the creative fruit of company founders Chris and Ben Blaine and is as near to flawless as short films get.

The tale follows primary school student Tony as he gets in touch with his inner utopian socialist and decides that enough is enough and that the imperialist oppression of his class must end.

The film is utterly charming, and manages to make a few subtle political and psychological points as well.

Free Speech, another Blaine Brothers joint-project is another excellent comedic piece, that once again manages to hit upon a few psychological truths, this time through a conversation between two lovers sharing a bath.

Admitedly not one for the kids to watch, as it does border on voyeurism at times, but definitely one for anyone who’s ever made the mistake of being too forthcoming in ‘sharing’ with a partner.

Oh, and Danny Dyer is in it, playing his usual version of himself, but his cockney charm works well here.

Tell, a rare non-Blaine Brother film from Charlie Productions, is the debut of director Laura Brocken.

Though flawed, it shows a lot of promise as Ms. Brocken experiments with visually depicting her abstract feelings – Particularly effective is the image of her carrying her own heart down a high street.

Although not all of the visualisations are as successful as this, the film remains an interesting piece of work.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
These films will be shown from the 3^rd to the 30^th of August at C soco urban garden. The screenings are free to the public.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
C FILM REVIEWS – Hand Island, Thank You Skinhead Girl, Hip Hip Hooray, Knock Knock and The End of the Pier Show, Hallo Panda

Making their Fringe debut as part of the C Film festival, Hip Hip Hooray, Knock Knock and The End of the Pier Show are proof, if any were needed, that short films can be surprising, thoughtful and just plain weird.

Hip Hip Hooray is the brainchild of Lynsey Miller and follows the exploits of Pippa, who works in an old folks’ home.

In an interesting inversion of some of the issues presented in C film’s Bridging the Gap programme, she finds that it is her rather than the residents whose existence is all but forgotten.

While the film doesn’t really manage to distinguish itself until the end, where it makes a bold move in terms of audience expectations, it is well-made and moving, and the cinematography by Dominik Rippl deserves special mention for its use of subdued colour.

Knock Knock, made by CineFringe film festival director John Lynch, is a surrealist piece that examines jokes, expectations and punchlines.

A film that defies much in the way of explanation, it juxtaposes long-form and short-form jokes and differing styles of comedic delivery.

And for festival goers it’s worth a look – not just because it’s a film about the Fringe being shown on the Fringe, although that is something that certainly adds to its meta-textual meditation.

Finally, The End of the Pier Show is a short film from director Ash Parker (creator of the Hand Island series) and writer Michael Facherty.

Though not stellar in terms of cinematography, in less than five minutes it does manage to create its own little abstract world that provides a very final twist for pier-end mime artist Pierrot.

For the observant and fans of the director’s webseries, there is also the chance to spot most of the cast from Hand Island appearing as extras.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Hip Hip Hooray, Knock Knock and The End of the Pier Show will be shown weekly from the 3^rd to the 30^th of August at C soco urban garden. The screenings are free to the public.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
C FILM FESTIVAL – Film at the Edinburgh Fringe, Hand Island, Thank You Skinhead Girl

Straight from being crowned Best Documentary at the 8th International Short Film Festival in Balchik, Bulgaria, and making it’s debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, Thank You Skinhead Girl is director Sharon Woodward’s examination of the skinhead subculture in Oxford in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Ms. Woodward grew up in care, and uses her own experiences, as well as archive material and interviews with other skinheads, to explain the role such gangs played for young people who felt lost and alone.

Though simple in their execution, the film’s straightforward, intimate interviews give the viewer a window into a world that many see as merely violent and delinquent.

And it is this charmingly unpretentious approach which must partly account for its popularity at film festivals around the country, considering its otherwise niche audience.

Otherwise, there are few real quibbles with the film. It tends to rely on a fairly limited soundtrack – ‘Skinhead Girl’ by The Oppressed is a catchy and undeservedly forgotten song, but is used perhaps a little too extensively.

And whilst probably a symptom of the documentary’s small budget it is a shame, especially considering the importance of music to the skinhead gangs.

The other main bugbear is the recitation of a poem at intervals throughout the documentary. Not only are these intervals annoyingly uneven, but the poem itself serves to jarringly break the flow of proceedings.

Though its subject matter will probably mean that Thank You Skinhead Girl won’t find a massive audience beyond critics and skinheads, anyone with an interest in ’70s and ‘80s culture would be well-advised to give this a gander.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Thank You Skinhead Girl will be shown weekly from August 3^rd to 30th at C soco urban garden. The screenings are free to the public.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
C FILM FESTIVAL – Film at the Edinburgh Fringe, Hand Island, Hip Hip Hooray, Knock Knock and The End of the Pier Show

Films may be all well and good but the C film festival at the Edinburgh Fringe is also bridging the digital divide by showing the first five episodes of new British webseries Hand Island.

When cowardly Colin (Alex Robinson) is mistaken for the new manager of an exclusive-but-sinister island, he quickly finds his life at risk from the island’s ‘Advisor’ – a stuffed toy tiger.

As he runs for his life across the island, he finds (and begins to fall for) fellow castaway Vinny (Bex James), while receiving help from the mysterious decoy duck obsessed ‘native’ (Katherine Ellen-Kotz) and idiot chauffeur Wade (pronounced ‘waar-day’ and played by Ash Parker, who also directs and co-writes).

Hand Island won’t win any awards for sophistication, but it is a genuinely funny sitcom somewhere in between the cultish charms of The Mighty Boosh and Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere, and represents an ambitious attempt to produce a series on a budget of virtually nothing.

Of course, this budget means that sometimes, you really can’t ignore that the main villain of the piece is stuffed tiger toy – but while this can to some extent be considered part of the joke, director Ash Parker has gone to such extraordinary lengths to often successfully make the tiger seem animate, that when it fails it just seems a bit of a shame.

Fortunately, the voicing and characterisation of the tiger are so much fun, you’re generally willing to let things slide – even when some of the actors’ comic timing is occasionally off as well.

Parker and co-writer Alex Robinson rely on a good story with likeable characters to keep the audience interested, making the first three episodes, which broadly form a single story arc, the most successful of the series so far. Episodes 4 and 5 lose a little pace, but are worth keeping up with for some amusing moments.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
An episode of Hand Island will be screened every weekday from the 3^rd to the 30^th of August at C soco urban garden. The screenings are free to the public.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

C FILM FESTIVAL – Film at the Edinburgh Fringe, Thank You Skinhead Girl, Hip Hip Hooray, Knock Knock and The End of the Pier Show