Yesterday the festival started with the shortlisted films for the Best UK Graduate Documentary. Although nominally 'UK', all the shortlisted entries were from the Newport Film School, but I have little doubt that this is because the school churns out high quality film makers. The five films shown were all different styles and very varied subjects, but all very interesting.
Finding Walter - Michael Moore
A personal exploration of Walter Dew, a famous Scotland Yard detective, who was involved in the Jack the Ripper case and made his name 'catching' Dr Grippen, presumed wife-murderer (although new evidence suggests he was innocent all along and framed by Dew to take the pressure off the failing police). Moore is a distant relative of Dew, as a rather awkward family tree scene with an actual tree shows us. This film seemed a little amateurish compared to some of the others, but still interesting.
Crossman -Christopher Beard & Sam Werkiester
Following Lindsey who has spent most of his life walking around the world carrying a crucifix to share the word of God. His devotion to his religious duty took over his whole life, ripping his family apart. While fascinating, the long scenes of group prayer in the street also felt quite awkward. I wondered whether the film makers were religious themselves and whether that would change the film. While I personally left feeling that Lindsey was quite crazy and selfish in how he left his children, the film-makers did seem to make a very neutral film, just giving the facts and leaving us to judge them, which is an impressive feat for such a divisive subject.
Mostar - Sebastian Feehan & Josh Bamford
My favourite of all the films, both for the professional way it was shot and for the sensitive way they treated the difficult, but fascinating, subject matter. Mostar was the most-fought over city in the Bosnian War, the bloodiest conflict in Europe since WW2, and this film tells the story of that violence and destruction through the eyes of a survivor, Nedzad Kasumovic, who risked his life to film the conflict. A clear yet thought-provoking entrance into a very complicated subject.
Eighty Eight - Sebastian Feehan, Josh Bamford & Hannah Bone
The one film that seemed vaguely uplifting, a portrait of 88 year old widower Ralph Settle who refuses to let age stop him. He competes - and wins! - in various sports against people a quarter of his age, busks in town and even goes to nightclubs and hangs out with the young-uns (that bit felt a little awkward). Even this one got sad though when Ralph talked of how he still can't get over his wife's death. I could imagine this film sliced between programmes on Channel 4 one evening.
Mourning of the Valley - Andrew Gough, Paris Palmer, John Shand, James Earing & Ian Morley
It wouldn't be a Welsh festival without at least one mention of the mining communities in the Valleys, this time the 1913 Senghenydd mining disaster where 439 men lost their lives. This film stood out technically as it combined interviews with very well acted documentary drama.
The winner will be announced tomorrow. In the meantime, I look forward to more films today.
UPDATE: Eighty Eight won Best Factual. I would have preferred Mostar.
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