Chris Atkins at greater length

For those who attended the stimulating Starsuckers screening (bit of a tongue-twister there!) with Q&A last night, you may be interested to read an extended interview with Chris Atkins in the current issue of Films & Festivals, aptly devoted to subversive documentaries. We have several of these in the Borderlines programme this year and if you found the questions raised in Starsuckers and Taking Liberties of interest,  I can particularly recommend The Yes Men Fix the World and We Live in Public alongside.

Turn to p. 40 for the interview.

And our special thanks to BAFTA and Screen West Midlands for making the series of events with Chris possible.

BAFTA London/BAFTA Hereford

Last Sunday: the annual BAFTA Awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House (see below). Today and tomorrow, Borderlines's own BAFTA event, Chris Atkins presents.

Today, at 5pm documentary film-maker Chris Atkins shows his 2007 film, Taking Liberties, a cautionary tale about the erosion of our civil liberties under the Blair government  in no less a venue than Hereford Cathedral which, appropriately enough, houses a copy of the Magana Carta in its archives. Free event.

Is it implausible that Amy Winehouse should set fire to her hair while mending a fuse? Or that Guy Ritchie gave himself a black eye while 'juggling with cutlery'?

Find out in  Starsuckers, a mischievous and radical polemic on the way the media feeds and exploits our obsession with media culture, and think again, showing as part of our special BAFTA/Screen WM event at 6.15pm on Monday 1 March at The Courtyard in Hereford.

The event features a rare chance to see this new documentary and to take part in a Q&A with Chris  afterwards. And there's a reception to follow.

Meanwhile, back in London, Kathryn Bigelow's mesmerising Iraq war movie The Hurt Locker swept the board with six BAFTAs, including Best Film and Best Director, the first time a woman has ever won this category.
Best Actress to Carey Mulligan for her role as Jenny, a school girl seduced by suavity and '60s London, in An Education.

Outstanding British Film went to Fish Tank, directed by another extremely able woman director, Andrea Arnold.

Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner won the BAFTA for the witty, incisive script of Up in the Air, written (according to Reitman) specifically for George Clooney's voice.



French prison thriller A Prophet beat rival The White Ribbon in the Best Film Not in the English Language category.

While the spotlight was on a tearful Duncan Jones (formerly Zowie Bowie) for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for the sci-fi mystery
Moon.

And Up! flew away with both Best Animated Film and Best Music BAFTAs.

Chris Atkins events at Hereford College of Arts - venue info

Please note that both the 11.30am workshop with Chris Atkins and the 1.30pm screening of Taking Liberties at Hereford College of Arts on Monday 1 March will now take place at the College's Media Centre, Bath Road, Hereford, HR1 2GY.

A map showing the location of the Centre can be downloaded here