Five Films Celebrate IT Pioneers

 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, today launched five short films that highlight the achievements of the often forgotten and unacknowledged Information Pioneers.The five pioneers, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Sir Clive Sinclair, Hedy Lamarr and Sir Tim Berners-Lee were chosen from a list of 150 IT Greats who span the globe. A celebrity advocate endorses each pioneer. The list of 150 IT Greats, along with the five short films, can be viewed on the Information Pioneers site (http://pioneers.bcs.org) The Institute commissioned Lewis Georgeson, the Emmy-nominated and multi-award winning director of short form digital programmes, to direct the series.

Elizabeth Sparrow, President, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said:

“We want to celebrate the achievements of these Information Pioneers and demonstrate their contribution to today’s Information Society. Everyone should visit the Information Pioneer campaign website and join in the debate on who should be the greatest Information Pioneer of all time, vote for their favourite pioneer and share their favourite film with their friends and colleagues.”

The five short films star:

Ortis Deley from The Gadget Show presents the achievements of Lord Byron’s daughter, Ada Lovelace, who has been regarded as the first computer programmer.

BBC Click reporter Kate Russell celebrates Alan Turing, the father of artificial intelligence and the man who created a machine to crack the Enigma Code during the Second World War.

British actress Miranda Raison tells us about Hollywood A-list star Hedy Lamarr who apart from her successful acting career also co-invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications, making the use of mobile phone communications possible today.

Phil Tufnell, ex-England cricketer, represents Sir Clive Sinclair the father of gaming who brought computers into the home and made them affordable to the masses at £99.95 each in 1979 with the ZX80. In 1982 the iconic ZX Spectrum was launched complete with sound and eight colours, which marked the birth of the UK gaming industry.

Finally, British comedian, actor and author Dom Joly acts as the advocate for Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web. Sir Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea of linking all documents together in one place when he was suffering from information overload.

The films will go live today on the pioneers site (http://pioneers.bcs.org) and on MSN.co.uk. Visitors are encouraged to vote for their favourite Information Pioneer, share the videos and join the discussion about the other pioneers on the website.

Regular updates and commentary are available on Twitter @infopioneers.

The campaign can also be found on Facebook.

9th Fantastic Films Weekend, Friday 4 - Sunday 6 June 2010

National Media Museum, Bradford

The National Media Museum, Bradford, presents the 9^th Fantastic Films Weekend (FFW) promising three fear-filled days of thrills and spine-tingling chills for fantasy, horror and sci-fi fans. This year’s Fantastic Films Weekend takes place from Friday 4 – Sunday 6 June.

As part of the weekend the Museum welcomes British directors Stanley Long (Screamtime and cinematographer of The Sorcerers) and Michael Armstrong (The Image starring David Bowie and Mark of the Devil). This year, the weekend also includes a special guest appearance by English screenwriter and FFW patron Jeremy Dyson, best known for his contribution to the well-known British TV series, The League of Gentlemen.

Films screening over the weekend include Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, an exclusive midnight screening of Birdemic: Shock and Terror, a double-bill of horror with 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later and a selection of popular titles from the Museum’s own film archive including Robocop, The Giant Spider Invasion and Patrick.

Stanley Long has worked with the likes of Roman Polanski on Repulsion and with Peter Cushing on The Blood Beast Terror as well as on the 1960s classic The Sorcerers. He co-directed Screamtime with Michael Armstrong. Both British horror features will be screened at the 9^th Fantastic Films Weekend; Stanley will also be signing copies of his autobiography X-Rated: Adventures of an Exploitation Filmmaker.

Writer/director Michael Armstrong is best-known for his cult horror films and for providing David Bowie with his screen debut in the short film The Image, which was also Michael’s first film. Michael will be discussing his career in the Museum’s Cubby Broccoli Cinema ahead of a screening of Mark of the Devil. The event starts at 6:15pm on Saturday 5 June. Mark of the Devil is a notorious and long-banned film in which a twisted witch hunter hands out God’s will, punishing an array of innocent women.

Hitchcock fans will be thrilled with the 1960 version of Psycho showing in the Museum’s Pictureville Cinema. This 50^thanniversary re-release is a welcome reminder of Alfred Hitchcock’s genius for creating heart-stopping cinema. There will be three separate screenings of the classic thriller during FFW.

Fantastic Films Weekend is proud to announce a special midnight screening of Birdemic: Shock and Terror. Influenced by Hitchcock’s The Birds, Birdemic was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States and since has played to sell-out theatres across the USA. This amateur but cult film was created on a micro-budget by first time director James Nguyen who has been compared to legendary dud-maker Ed (Plan 9 from Outer Space) Wood.

For those who don’t scare easily, don’t miss the double-bill of shock that will leave viewers hanging on the edge of their seats with Danny Boyle’s zombie chiller 28 Days Later, where animal rights activists storm a laboratory and unwittingly unleash a plague virus that turns humans into mad-eyed, homicidal maniacs. The double-bill continues with 28 Weeks Later, starring Robert Carlyle. This sequel offers cat-and-mouse chases and lashings of gore and blood, definitely not for the faint-hearted.

Once again the National Media Museum has dug deep in its unique film archive and dusted off some blasts from the past that will be showing on the big screen during the weekend. The films include Robocop in which Officer Murphy’s memorable catchphrase “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me” will take fans back to the first time they watched this sci-fi action thriller. Other favorites from the vault include The Giant Spider Invasion, the rarely-seen Three Cases of Murderand Patrick.

Other film highlights from this year’s Fantastic Film Weekend include Plague Town, a film about an American family in search of their roots in Ireland who instead discover a small village with a terrible truth from generations past; Videodromestarring James Woods and eXistenz starring Jude Law. Both films – a David Cronenberg double-bill - are linked to theImmersion exhibition (running in Gallery Two until September 5), in which photographer and video artist Robbie Cooper focuses on our obsession with screen media. Finally, audiences will get the chance to see the sell-out Avatar 3D andAlice in Wonderland 3D on Yorkshire’s only IMAX screen.

For festival passes, day passes or individual tickets visit www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/fantastic or call the NMeM box office on 0870 7010200. Weekend pass £50 (£40 concs), day pass £20 (£15 concs) (passes do not include IMAX titles). 28 Days Later/28 WeeksLater double-bills £10 (£7 concs). Single tickets £6.50 (£4.50 concs), Imax DMR £9 (£7 concs) - FFW pass holders receive £1 discount on IMAX films.

PollyGrind brings out the darkside

Film festival gets underway this Wednesday and runs until May 16 in Las Vegas

MAY 10 — As a fan of genre and independent cinema, Chad Clinton Freeman knows how hard it is to weed through everything and find good movies to watch these days. As a filmmaker, he also knows how hard it is to get independent works out for the public to see them. With both of these experiences in mind, Freeman created the Polly Staffle Grindhouse Fest.

The event, which will consist of five days of programming in the tradition of grindhouse theaters with double and triple features each day, gets underway this Wednesday and runs till May 16 at the Sci-Fi Center (2520 State Street) in Las Vegas.

Thirteen films and more than 31 trailers, music videos and shorts will play the PollyGrind, which has been hyped by Vampires.com as “one of the biggest events for grindhouse and trash film lovers this year.”

“This week the cinematic revolution that is known as the PollyGrind begins,” said Freeman, who has been dubbed the "new champion of unabashed B-movie sleaze" by ArrowInTheHead.com. “This festival is being put on in the same spirit as old school grindhouse cinema - no funding and creatively using whatever is available. With that being said, I think the lineup turned out rather nicely and I think everyone that comes out will enjoy what William Powell’s Sci-Fi Center and the PollyGrind have to offer.”

Five features will have world premieres at the event. John R. Hand’s sci-fi arthouse film Scars of Youth  opens the festival May 12. The Dead Undead, which stars Luke Goss and was directed by stuntmen Matt Anderson and Edward Conna, world premieres May 13. Creep Creepersin will world premiere his films Vaginal Holocaust, Caged Lesbos A-Go-Go, and Orgy of Blood on May 15.

The films Greg Lamberson’s Slime City Massacre (which stars Debbie Rochon, Lee Perkins and Brooke Lewis), Henry Weintraub’s Melvin, Bruce Dickson’s Red Velvet (Henry Thomas, Kelli Garner and Cristen Coopen), James Pronath’s Horrid, Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska’s Dead Hooker in a Trunk, Alex Pucci’s Frat House Massacre and the anthology Terror Overload (Scarlet Salem, Rachel Grubb and Ari Lehman) will have Las Vegas premieres and the Argentina import Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter will screen for the first time in the United States.

“Personally, I think all of these films are great. Otherwise I wouldn’t have programmed them,” Freeman said with a chuckle. “I will say that I’m very pleased I’m getting to open with the world premiere of Scars of Youth and I think the stuff Creep is bringing for Saturday should be a blast. Also, I think Slime City Massacre, The Dead Undead, Dead Hooker in a Trunk and Red Velvet will be crowd favorites.”

Also highlighting the festival will be works from award-winning filmmakers Michael Ramova (four faux trailers and a short), Calvin Lee Reeder (shorts The Rambler and The Snake Mountain Colada), Aaron Mento (shorts Absent and Heathen’s Gate) and Ginnetta Correli (music video Hippodome Mime).

Other short films playing will range from horror (The Bet, Blood Shed, The Red Hours, Depraved, and Hypochondriac), to animated fun (Frankenstien vs. Wolfman in 3D), to film noir (Stiletto), to sci-fi (Babylon 2084), to experimental (Telefone), and even dark comedy (Sis, and Because There Are Things You Never Forget).

Music videos will include Ryen McPherson’s entry Jitterbug (song by Walker Rose), the world premiere of Alvaro de la Hoz’s Long Goodbye (Lazy), David Wanger’s Anatinus (LIGO) Elona’s Warrior (Elona), and Rob Prior and Paul Jenkins’ Get Your Dead On (Scum of the Earth).

The PollyGrind will also feature appearances by actors, actresses, filmmakers and more. Confirmed special guests include Scream Queens Elske McCain and Donna Hamblin, actor Robert C. Sabin of Slime City and Slime City Massacre, comic book legend Everette Hartsoe (Razor), pinup artist Popeye Wong, and filmmakers Creep Creepersin, Alex Pucci, Sean Cain, Shane Ryan, Michael Dunn, Jeffrey Bliss, Aaron Mento, and Jeffrey Blake Palmer.

Vendor tables will open an hour and half before the movie madness begins each night. There will be items for sale, autograph and photograph opportunities, as well as raffles and giveaways.

Various nightly hosts will include spooks-model Jennique Angel, HorrorNews.net managing editor Dai Green, and Heather Wixson of DreadCentral.com, while sponsors of the event are TheGrindHouse.net, MTI Home Video, Sony Creative Software, FootageFirm, Terror Cards, and Dolls and Dead Things.

When the dust settles, the film festival will hand out more than 14 awards, including the top prize dubbed The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind. There will also be awards for best use of music, nudity/sexuality, violence/gore, and most outrageous. The audience will also be casting ballots each night to pick their favorite feature, short, music video and trailer.

Tickets for the event are $10 per day. Five day passes and three day passes can be purchased in advance for $40 and $25 at PollyGrind.com or TheSciFiCenter.com.

In anticipation of the event, Ammon Gilbert of ArrowInTheHead.com has called it “a B-movie jamboree of awesomeness” that “only Vegas has the balls to host.” Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly said “there's a fine line, certainly, between underground genre weirdness and artistic ambitions, and the festival will no doubt do everything possible to blur it.”

Freeman said he hopes both journalists are right in their predictions, and then some. “Our aim, as has always been the case with PollyStaffle.com, is to celebrate individuality, diversity, creativity and empowerment,” Freeman said. “Hopefully, PollyGrind is a fun and unique experience that honors the darker side of cinema and showcases the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions. I also hope it comes off as an intimate educational experience and a networking function for the audience and the filmmakers that will leave everyone wanting to come back for more next year.”