Man on Wire in Brockley

Next week the Brockley Jack Film Club is screening Man on Wire, the very highly rated documentary. Here's the details:

Monday 18 May 2009 at 7.30PM

Man on Wire
James Marsh / UK 2008 / 93 min / cert: 12

Winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Documentary, Man on Wire tells the incredible story of what some observers dubbed as “the artistic crime of the century”. One day in August 1974, after months of preparation, a young man called Philippe Petit attempts to walk on a wire between the New York's twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings.

Edited like a heist film and with a evocative soundtrack by Michael Nyman, the film presents rare and fascinating footage of the actual event together with stylish re-enactments and interviews of Petit and some of the co-conspirators.

“Simply exhilarating.” ***** The Times. Read the full review here .
“One of the most beautiful and thrilling documentaries ever made ” The Daily Telegraph

Official website

The Film Club always precedes the main feature with a local short. This month, the short will be Voice of the Voiceless, an excellent documentary about the 1970s/80s reggae sound system scene in New Cross and Deptford, featuring two veterans of that scene, Lez Henry and Les Back, as well as archival footage of, I think, Jah Shaka at the Albany Empire. One of the film-makers made the Guca documentary I highlighted here, although this is a much tighter and stronger film.

I see at Transpontine that Cafe Crema is screening Lemon Tree on 21 May, a film that looks well worth seeing. I am not sure how a boycott of Israeli goods squares with showing an Israeli film, but there you go...

Bonus links: TheJC on Man on Wire's Simon Chinn; Transpontine on film; Novelty shoe (SE4 film blog); Gordon Brown in Brockley; Brockley Nick interviewed at Londonist.
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