September 7th through 9th saw Northern Ireland playing host to the 4th YFIFF (Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival), the brainchild of maverick film-maker and Belfast boy George Clarke, director of Battle of the Bone, The Knackery & The Last Light.
This was to be my second time to participate in the festival.
I’d been a guest at the first year of the festival and had a great time, but work commitments had kept me from returning until now.
This time the guest of honour would be one of my favourite cult directors, Albert Pyun, the man behind The Sword & The Sorcerer, Cyborg, Nemesis, Mean Guns, Captain America and more.
Pyun was also scheduled to screen the European premiere of his film, Road to Hell.
DAY 1: Friday September 7, 2012
I’d flown in from Hong Kong the night before and had slept the much needed sleep of the old and jet-lagged, waking up shortly before the arrival of Albert Pyun & his companion Cynthia Curnan. I’ve been an admirer of Pyun’s work since I first saw Sword & the Sorcerer, and have been a fan of Cyborg, Captain America, Nemesis, Mean Guns & beyond. While Albert and myself had been communicating for years over e-mail, we hadn’t seen each other face to face since the shooting of Hong Kong 97 with Robert Patrick & Tim Thomerson some 19 years earlier,
Back then I was but a skinny kid with bad hair and a lot of enthusiasm for film, and Albert was already a seasoned movie maker but despite a mad schedule (he was shooting 3 films at same time, HK 97, Spitfire & Heat-Seeker as part of a three picture deal with Trimark), Albert had seemed very much in control and had taken the time to talk to me when I’d been on set. After all these years I can say that time has treated Albert far better than its treated me, he’s a little older and a little wiser but still a prolific and focused film-maker, while I’m now a big bald scary looking fella!
Albert and myself caught up over a late lunch with Cynthia who has written many of Pyun’s more recent projects including Infection, Tales of an Ancient Empire and Road to Hell which would be premiering at the festival. While we enjoyed a catch up and shared war stories from film-making around the world.
George, our host for the festival, was dealing with the madness that surrounds many a film festival including dealing with a hotel that seemed happy enough to have him renting out sections of the hotel, but reluctant to actually deliver on promises and agreements made to help with things.
The festival began with George welcoming the crowd and introducing Albert, Cynthia & myself and giving a brief rundown of what was to come and a few slight changes in the schedule before the screenings began.
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| Albert shaking hands with George; Cynthia stands behind them. |
We began with Beach, a tongue-in-cheek B & W horror short. It was followed by Unjust, a very nicely paced short with some strong dialogue and performances, which follows a man hunted by the father of a boy he killed by accident. Next up was Murderous, a hard film to describe, focusing on a father’s guilt after his son dies. It’s a mostly dialogue free film, but the acting comes across very well with a lot of raw emotion and helped by some strong location work and cinematography.
The first evening ended with a slight change to scheduled events, Albert presented a rare screening of his cut of Mean Guns, starring Christopher Lambert & Ice-T.
The film features a number of hit-men trapped in a building fighting each-other for a cash prize and their lives, was introduced by Albert who was still tinkering with the originally scheduled Road to Hell. Albert spoke a bit about Mean Guns, revealing some interesting facts about the production, including how short a period he had his leading men for; Lambert a couple of days and Ice-T for just one day, providing further insight into the world of independent action movie making and how you have to think on your feet and plan ahead.
DAY 2: Saturday, September 8th, 2012
The second day began with an early start at 9:30am with many visitors registering for the first full day of the festival and getting into the swing of things straight away, beginning with make-up sessions as guests and attendees prepared for the annual Zombie Walk that would be storming the grounds of Stormont Estate later that morning.
Now how do you control a blood thirsty crowd of hungry Zombie wanna-be’s?
Well you could go for crowd marshals, but not the YFIFF team. Instead they had enlisted the Emerald Garrison who sent over a couple of Stormtroopers from Star Wars to try and keep order which added to the fun.
The Zombie crowd featured some familiar faces to fans of the Zombie genre including a Zombie Nun, various green faced zombies who looked like they’d just staggered off the set of Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead, a SWAT team operative from the Umbrella Corporation (As seen in Resident Evil: Retribution which I did the Asian casting for!), some Shaun of the Dead style’d recently infected, Zombie kids and even a pair of Zombie Oompa-Loompas from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory!
The ragtag crowd staggered the mile or so up the hill through the grounds of Stormont Estate raising money for charity and pestering passing cars, raiding concessions stands and even boarding a tour bus to the amusement of all involved and various passers-by.
Returning to the hotel and grabbing some ‘raw meat’ less refreshment, the festival kicked back into gear with the afternoon screenings beginning with George Clarke’s second feature as a director, The Knackery.
It’s “Big Brother Meets The Running Man meets Dawn of the Dead.” The premise is simple but spot on; take a mismatched group of contestants, throw them into an abandoned building and offer a million pound prize to the last man standing, and unleash a blood thirsty zombie horde to tear them apart for the viewers pleasure. It’s a fast-paced blood and action filled 90 minutes or so of fun, shot on a budget of less than $500 US
Is it polished?
No, but the film entertains and delivers far more more than many a multi-million dollar high concept flick of the last few years and had the audience cheering for more.
The second feature of the day was Graham Noble’s Street Fight, which focuses on illegal street fights being screened as pay-per-view entertainment across the internet. The film is somewhat influenced by Hong Kong action cinema with echoes of Fight Club, and while some of the acting was a little over-played at times, Noble and his team deliver a solid looking film that shows great promise.
After a break for refreshments we sat down for a screening of Albert Pyun’s 1990 rarely seen director’s cut of Captain America, which features considerably large amounts of additional footage and gives much more insight into what could have been if Pyun had been given the budget he needed.
We’d also arranged for Albert to deliver a live commentary on the film, moderated by myself, which saw us discussing everything from budgetary constraints (that would have crippled most filmmakers but saw Albert thinking on his feet to make the most of what he had), that saw story changes, action set pieces being trimmed or cut entirely, costume issues, specific notes from Marvel as to what could and could not be changed with regards to the title character and his thoughts on Joe Johnson’s big budget version with Chris Evans.
The commentary gave quite an insight into just what happens to a production between green-light and the finished version hitting the screen and the various challenges Pyun & his crew had to overcome. (For more about the movie, read my interview with Albert & Producer Tom Karnowski)
It was truly an experience to hear a director talk openly and frankly about his experiences, both good and bad, to a very appreciative audience, and everyone was enthralled. The evening finished with a screening of one of my favourite Albert Pyun movies, the violent cyberpunk thriller Nemesis starring Oliver Gruner.
DAY 3: Sunday September 9th, 2012
The final day of the YFIFF started off once again with an early start and a relaxing ‘invitation only’ breakfast at The Stormont Hotel. It was great to sit and have a chat with other guests fellow attendees in a relaxed atmosphere and I apologise for those who were put off their food by seeing my caffeine needing face over their bacon and eggs!
After breakfast, I gave a workshop on casting and introducing/marketing yourself to agents and directors. There’s a hell of a lot of talent out there, but sometimes it just needs to market itself or present itself in a slightly different way. I do a lot of casting and line production work on projects, and there are times when people submit materials that either do them no justice or come across completely the wrong way. People sometimes seem to forget its “show business” or the “film industry“, and you’ve got to approach it the right way.
It can be frustrating as hell when you’re casting for a project and there are people with no experience behaving like prima donnas, refusing to come to castings, asking how come the director can’t just watch their film or give them a chance (when they have no material to show), and at the same time there are people with years of experience and solid credentials who are happy to come in and read or try out without having an ego problem. Attitude goes a long way folks, you can have all the talent in the world but the wrong attitude and wrong approach can destroy the opportunity you get.
Following the workshop attendees flocked to the screening room for an afternoon of shorts, features and premiers: These included Red Forest Hotel, a solid documentary about the plantation of eucalyptus trees in China. Then came a short film Myra, an extended monologue that was based on and inspired by interviews that Moors Murderer Myra Hindley gave to the UK newspaper The Guardian shortly before her death. The subject matter is at times difficult to watch, but an incredible turn by actress Caroline Burns Cook made it enthralling viewing.
The third screening was an Irish short film called Cops and Robbers, a story about two young brothers who find a gun and the chain of events that follow.
Fourth was a UK short called Trunks, an off the wall film about a man who finds that when he swims in the swimming pool he believes he may be homosexual!
This was followed by a series of additional shorts from the UK: Analogue Love which was about a young woman’s love for a large old fashioned television; Fall to Grace, the story of a puppet creating a human and the triumphs and trials that followed; Buon Giorno, Sayonara which tells of an Italian male and a Japanese girl meeting each other by chance; Have You Seen This Girl, about a man traveling a great distance to find a girl who he knows only from her photo.
Then came an Italian short, And the Winner Is, about gambling and luck. The final short, The Theoretical Proof on the Existence of Fairies was about a writer and his love wanting to expose fairies for his own nefarious purposes
With these screenings finished the audience took a short break before the European premiere of Albert Pyun’s Road to Hell, a quasi-sequel/off shoot of Walter Hill’s classic Streets of Fire, a Rock n’ Roll Fable. (Full review to follow)
The Awards Ceremony was next, see results below;
- BEST FILM – ROAD TO HELL
- BEST SHORT – UNJUST
- BEST INTERNATIONAL – RED FOREST HOTEL
- BEST DIRECTOR(S) – JOHN RECK & KEITH MACKIN
- BEST LOCAL FILM – MURDEROUS
- BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – COPS AND ROBBERS
- BEST ACTOR – HARRY SANGER (UNDER THE RUG)
- BEST ACTRESS – CAROLINE BURNS COOK (MYRA)
- AUDIENCE CHOICE – UNJUST
- SCREENING OF RECOGNITION – BEACH, THOMAS J. SMYTH
The awards were followed by a surprise screening of the comedic short Pillow Talk, which asks in its own unique way if you can remember your first love?
Starring and co-directed by Anthony Boyle who would also be seen in the final premiere of the festival, the latest film from director George Clarke, Splash Area, a gentle tale of kids, friendship, trick or treat oh yes and Killer Clowns!
Set on Halloween, Splash Area is a true grindhouse styled horror. (Full review to follow)
Forget the current PC big budget horror movies where there is little in the way of blood and guts, let alone any genuine suspense or excitement; with Splash Area Clarke delivers another highly entertaining and at times genuinely disturbing slice of fun.
The framing device involving two young children being read (or are they?) a bed-time story by the somewhat worrying Uncle works well and has you wondering if the kids are in genuine danger, while Clarke’s young cast and crew deliver very well. Its further confirmation of Clarke’s genuine talent and once again has me asking what could this man do with a budget and some genuine and solid support?
And that was that, it was a highly enjoyable weekend of films and fun. It was great to catch up with Albert & Cynthia after so long, and to see George and his team and the other filmmakers and the attendees. The 4th YFIFF was a success, and I hope to be back again next year for a bigger and better one!
Big Thanks to George Clarke, Albert Pyun, Cynthia Curnan, Roddy Conlon, Kenny Martin, Robbie Render, John Render, Alan Crawford, Jo Crawford, Vivian Jamison, Phil Wilce, Simon Hosick, Danial Faust and everybody else for their hospitality and friendship during the festival
For more on George Clarke and his films and the festival log onto: https://georgeclarke.webs.com/
