It wasn’t easy, but Culturejamjar.com is live.

Expect much of the same but a whole lot more in the next few months…

For hot tips about where to do your wandering, the skinny on how to keep your ears happy, bookmark www.culturejamjar.com

There will be competitions, shows and treats for everyone over the next couple of months, not to mention some amazing event’s hosted by the CJJ bandits.

We will keep this blog active active, we arent the kind of people who forget where we came from!

The facilities are fantastic, there is a small gallery on the top floor, an auditorium for lectures and a media room with bright red PVC sofa’s where you can sit and view a wide selection of Korean Movies.

I only spent 30min’s in the place, but left with a free book which provided many interesting tidbit’s about Korean Culture.

• Korea invented Moveable Type and Lead Based Type. (No, not Guttenberg, I saw that documentary with Stephen Fry on the beeb too, and feel just as cheated!)
• The Korean Language is unique and extremely rational. (See video)
• Korea may have had the kindest king ever…King Sejong invented the language because he believed that people were committing crimes because they couldn’t read!
• Korean Cinema -Director’s Chan Wook-Park and Kim Ji-Woon are representative of the creative tour de force that are reinventing and warping the traditions of filmmaking.
• Kim Jong may be dead, and or close to death…

The film festival will be split between The Barbican in London and Fact Picturehouse in Liverpool.

http://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/

Warning: The video below is horrendous, and the style is reminiscent of video’s that you may have been forced to watch in science class during the Eighties. If you are not harbouring any kind of childhood repression, click the button and watch one of the most condensed history segment’s that you are ever likely to stumble upon.

Stephen Soderbergh @ BFI Premiere of CHE

Cute: “I know you know” actor, wee Aaron Fuller, getting a big hug from his family after the jump

Not Cute: Some dude from The Clash giving serious face to everybody – The thing is nobody gave a tuppence that he was there, and none of the press wanted to talk to him but he walked in like he was the big attraction.

The big attraction: Benicio Del Toro, I managed to grab some face time with the CHE star and asked if he felt that the film managed to capture the tragic/demeaning demise of a glamorized cult hero? He think’s so, “but remember it’s still just a movie”

Fast Forward: Steven Soderbergh got quizzed about his untitled Spalding Gray project. It is still in the works and he has masses of material but the process is being lengthened by the fact that only he and one other are working on it.

True to form: Robert Carlyle is all smiles as he tells his critics to spin on it.

Veteran: John Hurt is charming

The exhibition comprises of the most comprehensive collection of Warhol’s work (other than the museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh) and gives the viewer an opportunity to assemble a rounder picture of one of the most enduring commercial artist’s in history.

I had read some of the Warhol diaries and it is likely that everybody in the free world has perfect recall of his soup can’s. But I was astonished with the sheer scale and variety exposed in the exhibits.

The layout of the exhibition is exceptional and includes three distinctive sections. You arrive in Cosmos, which is a collection of his notebook’s, Polaroid collections, negative sheet’s and comfortable listening coves where you can sit and listen to the sound’s of The Factory. I had sore tootsies so sat and listened to Edie Sedgwick sound lucid/psychotic for a while.

“What is it? It’s nifty I want to destroy it”

Having rested for a while, I sat about watching videos in the second section TV-scape and finally entered Filmscape.

Highlights include:

• Factory Diaries: Which show the day to day working in the famed studio.
• A Time Capsule, which includes letter’s, receipts and Polaroid’s collected by Warhol
• 19 of Warhol’s films – including Chelsea Girls, Sleep and Empire
• Screen Tests, which include Allen Ginsberg and Salvador Dali.

You can catch the show up until 18th January 2009 and the tenner that you spend to gain access to the treasuretrove will also allow you access to take a peep at Robin Rhodes collection.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts

Barfoed honed his talent’s in commercial film before cutting his directorial teeth on a franchise of popular children’s adventure movies, but don’t expect any forest’s and hi-jinks in The Candidate which is a rapid departure from his previous dalliance and indicative of a distinctive and stylistic directorial approach which tries to combine : “Classic genre with a distinct European Execution…”

I found an excellent article on the film  —> http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/63/expressionist.htm

Here’s Kasper’s top 5 Danish Film’s

Festen : (Thomas Vinterberg)

Nattevagten : (Ole Bornedal)

Breaking The Waves : (Lars von Trier)

Mifune Sidste Sang : (Soren Kragh-Jacobsen)

Italian For Beginner’s : (Lone Scherfig).

And I’m quite sure that when I’ve watched The Candidate, it will make it onto my favourite danish cinema list.

His latest film Bullet in the Head has proved to be controversial, and despite being fairly experimental (There is no dialogue and it’s about the Basque Separatist Terrorist group (ETA), the film has been well received by the critics and nominated for various awards.

When asked about his shooting technique; long tele photo lenses which echo’s the style of a wild life documentary. Rosales explained that in times of ideological conflicts, the solution’s can only be achieved through communication and new ideas, because clearly the old one’s aren’t working.

“Politician’s talk but don’t listen to what they are saying to each other…Cinema is a way of bringing light into absurdity”

http://www.tiroenlacabeza.com – but get your spanish dictionary out first.

The plot centre’s on a young Palestinian-American woman’s journey into her home land and the complication’s that ensue. The complexity of the subject matter is tempered with her growing affections for a local lad.

Although the director Annemarie Jacir has been actively involved in Independent film since 1994. Salt of the Sea is her first feature film.

During the shoot, Annemarie was routinely refused permission’s to shoot footage by Israeli soldiers, but being a tenacious ladybird, decided to shoot anyway.

“I knew that as I’m a woman, I would just be sent home, but for the men, it could mean prison”

Understandably a few of the Palestinian crew member’s decided not to hedge their bets and pulled out.

We discussed the difficulties of being a female director, and she, like many other’s have just resolved to rise above it, and to prove the pigdogs wrong! Apparently she had troubles with some older french crewmen who constantly questioned her authority, but with persistence they began to realise that even without a wiener a director is a director.

So having completed her film in troubled territory, gaining funding proved to be the greatest obstacle, Salt of the Sea has 8 co producers and 17 sources of finance!

The funding Maze that Annemarie found herself in also caused creative problem’s as she was oblidged to use certain resources in order to receive the funds. This resulted in one of the pivotal scenes in the film being accidentally deleted and to her and the talents dismay, the whole segment was reshot. It was the films only fight scene.

The film is currently doing the film festival circuit and I will post details of the anticipated DVD release later, hater.

Although the festival closes on the 30th of December, there is still ample opportunity to catch an eyeful at cinema’s throughout London.

I am so sore that I wasn’t able to make it down earlier, but will haul ass to ensure that I soak up a dose of  cult coolness that will last us through winter.

When I hit base, I will write up this morning’s material.

I had been disappointedby grande creative alliance’s on many occasions. A film may have a talent selection larger than the London Philharmonic but the completed work can still end up as inert as a stale pint.

The creative power trio at the helm of this gem deliver rich panoramic shots coupled with a sublime mix of drama, comedy and fantasy. The little girl’s role in the film both enhances and maintains a simple, surreal and wielding storyline.

 The Fall is a must have for your “I’m serious for cinema” collection.