Appalachian tap dancers, Icelandic ‘fishbillies’ and an early work from the director of Star Wars are just some of cinematic treats on offer at the WeeFT, a joint project between QFT and the trans Festival.
From Tuesday 13 – Saturday 17 July, the Ulster Hall Group Space will be transformed into a bespoke micro-cinema, showing a range of cult classics, new avant-garde productions and adaptations. There will be regular lunchtime and evening screenings and tickets are just £3 per film, or £10 for a WeeFT pass.
Susan Picken, Head of QFT said:
“QFT aims to encourage people to watch new and classic film in innovative ways so we are delighted to be working with trans on the WeeFT. It offers a great way for new audiences to enjoy what QFT does and with one our most eclectic line-ups ever, film fans are sure to find something they’ll enjoy.”
A silent, non-narrative work from 1943, Meshes of the Afternoon is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. It has been identified as a key example of the trance film, in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and the camera conveys his or her subjective focus.
Described by director Charles Laughton as a “nightmarish Mother Goose”, The Night of the Hunteris a profoundly disturbing psychodrama. Driven by a performance by Robert Mitchum that goes a long way to defining on-screen evil, this is a strange, tense and at times dream-like film that still sends a shiver down the spine.
We Call it Skwee explores a new electronic sound which came out of Scandinavia in 2005. Skwee quickly built up an international cult following with an interest in fun and fresh electronic music revitalised by the funky lo-fi squeaks and bleeps coming from the cold reaches of Finland and Sweden.
Star Wars fans won’t want to miss THX 1138 – Vers:on, a special screening of one of George Lucas’ earliest writing and directorial projects. Experienced DJ/VJ team Pete Donaldson and Ed Hughes have rebuilt THX 1138 with contemporary audio and video tools and are performing the cult sci-fi hit live, retaining the atmosphere and loose narrative of the original.
In Daft Punk’s Electroma, the titular band members play two robots who journey on a quest to become human. Their odyssey takes them across a hauntingly beautiful dystopian American landscape from endless highways to deserted towns in a surreal moving painting.
The WeeFT will feature two films from ‘Master of Horror’ and ‘Godfather of Gore,’ cult director Dario Argento, whose feverishly violent films exhibit a level of artistry rarely seen in horror cinema.
Considered by many to be Argento’s finest film, Deep Red is the startling tale of a musician who witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic, and sets out to snare her killer. Opera is often considered as the director’s last great film, and is also his bleakest work – a serial killer becomes infatuated with a young opera singer in this tale of obsession and sadistic desire.
An hilarious exercise in low (almost no) budget film making from director Shane Meadows, Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee is a mockumentary following the day to day life of Le Donk (Paddy Considine), failed father, second-rate roadie, aspiring music mogul and one of the most monstrously funny characters you will ever see on the big screen.
Jaw droppingly bonkers but also kind of great, White Lightnin’ is a wildly grotesque fantastical biography of the Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White. Fuelled by moonshine and lighter fuel, Jesco (a wild eyed Edward Hogg) uses tap dancing to keep his demons at bay, as he takes a phantasmagoric tumble into the dark corners of artistic genius.
trans and QFT are proud to present Iceland’s first foray into the exploitation horror genre – Harpoon: Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre! A motley crew of sightseers and low-lifes set out on a whale watching expedition. When a freak accident occurs and they are stranded at sea things take a turn for the worse; especially when they are rescued by a family of tourist-hating ‘fishbillies’…
The WeeFT will be open at the Ulster Hall Group Space from Tuesday 13 – Saturday 17 July. Each screening costs just £3 or £10 for a WeeFT pass. For further information and online booking, see
