Kiss the Water

Why do salmon snap at flies? This is, arguably, the abiding mystery of salmon fishing, because returning salmon starve themselves on their journey to their breeding grounds, living only on the fat of their sea years.

Eric Steel’s mesmerizing and quietly enthralling documentary explores this conundrum by focusing the life of the bespoke, and now legendary, fly-tier Megan Boyd. Boyd lived and worked all her life in Brora, in a remote cottage without electricity or running water, surrounded by feathers from swans and parrots, bits of fur, gold and silver and turquoise thread, where, by the light of a hurricane lamp, she tied thousands upon thousands of exquisite salmon flies, accompanied only by her dog. Over the years a steady stream of “toffs,” including the Prince of Wales, made their way up the A9, the road that winds from Edinburgh to John O’Groats, to beat a path to Megan’s door.
Using a combination of interviews, animation and translucent images of the Highlands, Eric Steel attempts to capture the essence of this most elusive lady. He has very little to go on, and there is a “sub plot” to the documentary that seeks to equate Princess Diana with a salmon fly, not entirely successfully, but it is the only glitch in this otherwise fascinating and wholly original documentary.

Kiss the Water is being shown in cinemas all the way from Caernarfon to Aberfeldy. It screens at Ludlow Assembly Rooms on Thursday 6 March at 2pm and 7.30pm and at The Courtyard Hereford on Friday 14 March at 6.15pm when producer Kate Swan will be present to introduce the film and answer questions.

Be sure to catch it in a cinema near you.

KATHARINE NORBURY

THE FISH LADDER BY KATHARINE NORBURY WILL BE PUBLISHED BY BLOOMSBURY NEXT YEAR

First Night 2014

1st screening at Borderlines 2014 - 12 Years a Slave

The sun shines on snowy Hay Bluff in the distance and Borderlines kicks off with a record 9000 advance bookings.  My first film is 12 Years A Slave and the 230 strong audience watch in utter silence, transfixed by the story, which is beautifully told period drama, without the gush and clamour of a Hollywood soundtrack.  Then Like Father, Like Son - family drama in contemporary urban Japan, and The Golden Dream - young people leaving South America, driven by the dream of a new life in the USA - a stunning film, of trains and landscapes.  Windows on very different worlds - Borderlines trademark.  BBC Midlands Today gives the festival a great plug in the evening - bringing the best of film culture to the rural areas, some of it made here in Herefordshire too.  And Emma Watkins, half of our great film programming team from the Independent Cinema Office, arrives to introduce films and soak up the buzz at the Courtyard.  Another 16 days to go and many more worlds to visit.

The Golden Dream

Does BAFTA matter?

Steve McQueen with the Best Film BAFTA for 12 Years a Slave

So, a week after the ceremony at The Royal Opera House in London, why does BAFTA matter? In 2001, the date of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards shifted from April to a February slot in order to hoick up its global significance as a pointer for the Oscars in March.

With the BBC1 broadcast lagging at least and hour and a half behind live activity, the ceremony itself possesses all the excitement of a deflated balloon. The buzz is all on Twitter. BAFTA itself coyly circumvented the spoiler issue by tweeting a link to its Tumblr account ('expand at your own peril')

while floating in a spume of winner revelations. Watching BAFTA on TV is all about seating plans, frocks and the professionally masked facial tics of elation and disappointment.

The plaudits however, an endorsement by vote from around 6,500 individuals in the industry based in the UK and US,  do count for something. Gravity, with its Mexican director and American stars Bullock and Clooney, won the most awards (7 in total), and had to hassle like some loose-limbed young colonial athlete for British status. The fact that it was shot at Shepperton Studios employing the incredible special effects expertise of British company Framestore seemed rub off into the announcement early this week that Pinewood is to open major new studios in Cardiff.

Similarly Steve McQueen's statement that there are "21 million people living in slavery as we sit here now” in his acceptance speech for the Best Film BAFTA for 12 Years a Slave was matched topically the next day by a news report on child trafficking as  the Modern Slavery Bill that is currently going through Parliament.

For us as a film festival, and one that falls almost exactly between the two major sets of film industry awards, the BAFTAs and Oscars matter. They're a badge that lifts a movie; its public profile rises and wafts into word of mouth. It's a selling point.

The Great Beauty

So here, shamelessly partisan but all in one place, are the films we're showing that won:
Best Film - 12 Years a Slave
Film Not in the English Language - The Great Beauty
Adapted Screenplay - Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope for Philomena
Leading Actor - Chiwetel Eljiofor for 12 Years a Slave
Leading Actress - Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
Supporting Actor - Barkhad Abdi  for Captain Phillips
Editing - Dan Hanley, Mike Hill for Rush

Congratulations!