Paradiso Piccolo Cinema

For this year’s festival, Port Eliot’s Big Dining Room has been transformed into the Paradiso Piccolo. Curated by writer and filmmaker Naomi Gryn, screenings will be introduced by some of cinema’s backstage heroes. We pay tribute to the legacy of Emeric Pressburger, explore what it means to be English through the lens of Martin Parr, celebrate the work of costume designer Sandy Powell and turn the spotlight on to documentary filmmakers with special previews of three outstanding feature-length docs.

Here’s a taster of some of the delights in store:

SPECIAL PREVIEW: PROJECT NIM
Directed by James Marsh, produced by Simon Chinn
(2011, 93 mins.)
From the Oscar-winning team behind Man On Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim’s extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature – and indeed our own – is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.
Introduced by Simon Chinn. Followed by Q&A.

SPECIAL PREVIEW: KNUCKLE
Directed by Ian Palmer
(2011, 93 mins.)
Residing in Ireland and parts of the UK, the Travellers have a deep sense of clan pride and when conflicts arise, arguments are often settled through ritualised, bare-knuckle fighting. Director Ian Palmer followed members of the Traveller community for 12 years and became privy to a decades-long family feud. Disturbingly raw, yet compulsively engaging, Knuckle offers candid access to a rarely seen, brutal world where a cycle of bloody violence seems destined to continue unabated.
Introduced by Knuckle’s editor, Ollie Huddleston, and cameraman, Michael Doyle. Followed by Q&A.

Knuckle

VELVET GOLDMINE
Directed by Todd Haynes, produced by Christine Vachon
(1998, 124 mins.)
Todd Haynes’ glittering tribute to the Glam rock scene of the early 1970s is loosely based on David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character. Costume designer Sandy Powell won a BAFTA and was nominated for an Oscar for her work on Velvet Goldmine. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christian Bale, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor, and Eddie Izzard, this is “the most cerebral rock ’n’ roll movie ever made”. (Village Voice)
Introduced by Sandy Powell

THE MAKING OF AN ENGLISHMAN
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, produced by Andrew Macdonald
(1995, 52 mins.)
A personal documentary by the grandsons of Emeric Pressburger, who are now both leading filmmakers in their own right. Pressburger created some of the classics of the British cinema, including The Red Shoes, chosen by Martin Scorsese for Paradiso Piccolo’s big brother, the Paradiso Outdoor Cinema. This 1995 documentary, made for Channel 4’s Witness strand, retraces their grandfather’s journey in exile from Hungary and five other European countries, arriving in England in 1935. Includes interviews with his friends and colleagues and using home movies, diary extracts and film clips.
Introduced by Andrew Macdonald. Followed by Q&A.

SPECIAL PREVIEW: DESPICABLE DICK & RIGHTEOUS RICHARD
Directed by Joshua Neale, produced by Sandra Whipham
(2011, 79 mins.)
Enigmatic rascal and recovering addict Dick Kuchera has offended many people in his time. Joshua Neale’s first feature documentary, Despicable Dick & Righteous Richard follows him on a life-changing road trip to track down former loved ones in an attempt to right the wrongs of his chequered past.
Introduced by Joshua Neale. Followed by Q&A.

SPECIAL PREVIEW: POWDER
Directed by Mark Elliot, produced by David Hughes
(2011, 100 mins.)
Made by the team behind Awaydays and filmed on location in Ibiza, London, Liverpool and live at the V Festival, Powder – based on Kevin Sampson’s 1999 novel – is an unflinching journey into the tortured psyche of a musical genius. Most young bands get started for fun – to get laid, to see the world beyond your own front door. For Keva McCluskey, it’s a compulsion; he needs to play if he’s to exorcise the demons that haunt him. In following Keva’s plight to put his ghosts to rest and make sense of the songs buried deep in his troubled soul, we take a journey to his heart of darkness and share his fears, and dreams of light at the end of the road. Starring Liam Boyle and Alfie Allen.
Introduced by Kevin Sampson.

THINK OF ENGLAND
Directed by Martin Parr, produced by Colin Luke
(1999, 56 mins.)
From the Henley Regatta to a chilly church fete and from Liverpool pubs to suburban gardens, Magnum photographer Martin Parr travels through England asking what makes the English so English. Parr’s original and ironic eye reveals a nation “united under a Union Jack and a permanently grey sky… A day-glo rose in Think of England, adrift in a concrete garden echoes Blue Velvet’s suburban nightmares, yet here the national symbol is transformed into a powerful metaphor for a falsely proud and isolated island.” (Joe Sieder)
Introduced by Martin Parr. Followed by Q&A.