Films and Cinema in Leicester 2012

This page is part of the visual arts section

The art of screening writing

Begins Thu 3 May, 7pm - 9pm .£120 / £108 Conc.

The Art of Screenwriting will provide a practical, skills-based guide to screenwriting - taking participants from their initial idea to a finished short film over the course of nine weeks.

Using a combination of digital presentation, lecture and short film, writers of all levels of experience will be encouraged to develop, pitch and refine a short film script, while developing both their craft and industry knowledge.

Get the full details

19th April

The Phoenix in April

From Leicester to Spain, through France and Poland via the roundabout route of Argentina and back again. Phoenix is jetting around the world once more with enough award winning foreign cinema to keep anyone's cultural inclinations good and sated, and we don't even need to see your passport!

We continue this month with a special showing of Guillermo Del Toro's stunning civil war parable, The Devil's Backbone. We then are treated to Cannes Grand Prix winner, The Kid With a Bike, the steamy crime thriller Carancho and the effortlessly humorous Le Havre.

Also don't miss the astonishing true story of In Darkness. Leopold Socha (later named Righteous among the Nations) a polish sewer worker, hides a group of Jews below the occupied city of Lvov for 14 months. Further hard-hitting fare is the winner of the Best Feature Film at the Vienna Film festival - Michael, the controversial, harrowing and intelligent tale of a mild mannered office manager who keeps a 10 year old boy locked in his basement.

We're overjoyed to be screening an exclusive 70 minute cut of The Story of Film on the 27th created by Mark Cousins. We'll also be overcome with New York Hipster Cool when we show Blank City - charting the rise of the No Wave movement, featuring artists John Lurie, Steve Buscemi and Debbie Harry. If that's not enough excitement for you, the explosive Corman's World will be - as an endless multitude of Hollywood greats line up to pay homage to Roger Corman - the king of the B-Movie!

Download our April bochure HERE

29th March

Leicester's first South Asian Film Festival to go 'beyond Bollywood'

A three month film festival begins Friday 6th April at Phoenix Square. 12 South Asian films, many of them never screened in the UK before, will be shown as part of a ground breaking new film festival starting on Friday 6th April at Phoenix Square in Leicester.

Rather than showing mainstream Bollywood films, the organisers of the new South Asian Film Festival - Phoenix Square and First4Events - will showcase the breadth of independent and regional cinema produced in the Indian subcontinent.

The Festival will begin with six films screening over the weekend of 6th to 8th April and continue with a film every week for the next three months, and there are plans to grow the festival in the future.

All the films will be shown at Phoenix Square on its state-of-the-art cinema screens with English subtitles in a variety of languages including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Kannada.

The wide range of films to be shown include the UK premiere of international award-winning Harun Arun, a Gujarati film which addresses the partition of India and its impact on one young Pakistani boy separated from his grandfather on a journey across the border to Lakhpat. Mother India - a cult classic - tells the story of one woman's struggle to keep her land and dignity whilst raising her two sons after her family are conned by a corrupt money lender.

The UK premiere of Riwayat - in Hindi - looks at infanticide and the intentional killing of 100 million baby girls, 40 million since 1984 in India alone. Riwayat brings the issue to light in an artistic and sensitive manner with the colour, song and dance of classic Indian films.

"Indian cinema is famous in the west for mainstream Bollywood films, but there is so much more depth to the region's film output," said John Rance, CEO of Phoenix Square. "With this festival we will be revealing for the first time some exceptional South Asian cinema - films that sit outside the mainstream and are much the richer for it."

Nick Kotecha of First4Events in Leicester commented, "With its city centre location, Phoenix Square is the perfect venue to bring rich south Asian culture into the heart of the city. With their healthy appetite for quality world cinema, we know Phoenix customers will enjoy these films as much as the south Asian community."

The South Asian Film Festival was officially launched at Phoenix Square on 23rd March by the Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP together with several councillors and guests.

Tickets are available from the Phoenix web site | Find out more about First4Events

17th March

Film being made in Leicester

Belgrave Road - The Golden Mile - is the setting for a film now being made in Leicester. Jadoo is being directed by Amit Gupta and stars Amara Karan. The shooting was featured by BBC East Midlands Today, on 16th March, in their 6:30 p.m. broadcast.

The film will tell the story of two chefs, who are brothers and, following a family dispute, they set up rival restaurants on opposite sides of the Belgrave Road. The daughter, Shalini, is determined to get both brothers to bury the hatchet and attend her wedding.

Director and co-writer Amit Gupta was a writer in resident at The Haymarket Theatre and his play Campaign was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2010.

dancers taking part in a film
Photo© Harjinder Ohbi

The film crewe was at Cossington Park today shotting a crowd scene. Extras from the local community were watching a dance troupe performing as part of the Holi celebrations.

Photo© Harjinder Ohbi

Find out more about Jadoo the Movie | Jadoo Movie on Facebook

Website for film fans

We found this interesting web site for film enthusiasts. Subtitledonline is a new web site that has a different take on film and television. Focusing on the more creative and unusual end of the film's world, the site offers news, reviews and features on films, video and tv that is overlooked by the commercialised sector of the market.

See more on Subtitledonline

The Cofilmic Best of the Festival

The Cofilmic Best of the Festival comes to Leicester, Phoenix Arts on Saturday 18th February. The first of our tour dates around the UK, showcasing the 10 award-winning films, alongside our trademark live sketch acts and audience vote!

We are proud to be part of Europe's largest and longest running comedy festival. We are also planning to have a more permanent COFILMIC hub in Leicester, connecting and working with local film makers, writers and directors in the Leicester and East Midlands area.

Janet Harrison, Cofilmic founder told us: "Our first tour date needed to have some impact, so we decided on DLCF as it is the longest running, and I believe, the biggest in Europe. Moreover, we want to build a COFILMIC hub in the East Midlands area, connecting film makers, comedians and writers to create some fresh and exciting comedy content and Geoff Rowe at the Big Difference Company (who runs the comedy festival) is really keen for us to make that base in Leicester. Exciting times ahead!

"Steve North from Dave is also a COFILMIC judge, so it made sense for us to consider DLCF for our first tour date. We are keen to know who wins the Leicester audience voted top film out of the 10 of the best (winners and runners up from the 2011 festival). Six lucky people will also have a chance to win tickets to this years festival in Manchester on 29th and 20th October at The Comedy Store."

See the details of the winning films programme on the Cofilmic website

Documentary Film Festival

A festival of documentary films is to be held at the Phoenix Arts Centre, starting on Friday 20th January. See our coverage of last year's festival.

See our reviews of film shown at the Docfest

Selected films showing at the Phoenix in March

To check out which films are screening now at The Phoenix, see their web site:

Phoenix web site

Other pages you might like:

Art and photographic exhibitions in Leicester