London Short Film Festival 2012

Last Friday saw the opening launch of the 9th London Short Film Festival. Renowned for its daring cross-arts programming and showcasing the very best of the country's raw talent, this festival is a mecca for the UK's young creative talent and a significant date in the UK film calendar. The festival continues until Sunday 15th January so do not despair, you have time to check out some of the events and screenings that are still to come in the eclectic programme. For those of you who are more sonically stimulated, we've picked out some of the music related events that you should go and check out...

THURSDAY 12TH JANUARY 6.30pm ROXY BAR & SCREEN
New Shorts #16 Music & Video
The marriage of sound and image. A selection of creative music videos and short films featuring music by Esben & The Witch, The Oscillation and Daedelus.



FRIDAY 13TH JANUARY 7.30pm HACKNEY PICTUREHOUSE ATTIC
Branchage Soundtracks... Serafina & Sam Steer - This Side of the Moon
Originally commissioned for the 2011 Branchage Jersey Film Festival, LSFF present the London premiere of harpist and songwriter Serafina Steer and animator Sam Steer’s performance, inspired by Kenneth Anger’s 1950 short film Rabbit’s Moon.

In their bizarre, astounding new animation, Postman’s Familiar, the Steer brother and sister team have re-interpreted the archetypal characters of Anger's avant-garde clown fantasy. Anger’s original soundtrack features mainly doo-wop pop, juxtaposed against his surreal, classical, silent take on 'commedia dell'arte'.

Serafina Steer (Stolen Recordings) creates a live sonic interpretation of this mythical story, using the new sound of 'psychedelic harp'. There will be a programme of classic and recent animations, including other Steer brother and sister collaborations.



SATURDAY 14TH JANUARY 7.30pm THE HORSE HOSPITAL
Analogue Kingdom feat.. OHMMM & Sculpture
Sculpture perform unstable modular collage. An incautious amalgam of mutant electronic forms, mechanical and digital animation techniques, computer sequencing and analogue tape edits, the avant-garde and looney tunes. Dan Hayhurst plays computer, reel-to-reel tape recorder, sampler, effectron and walkman. Reuben Sutherland plays video zoetrope record deck.
The result is a kaleidoscopic sensory overload, process revealed to the audience, experimental yet filled with a deranged sense of joy.

OHMMM (Orchestra of Home Made Musical Machines) are an Art Noise Band consisting of 6 artists who build and perform a collection of home made musical machines that are contained within an instrument case of fixed dimensions.

For LSFF, OHMMM will be performing a live improvised score to a specially commissioned 30 min 'Noise-Umentary' about the band Jazz Kunst.



SUNDAY 15TH JANUARY 7.30pm THE LEXINGTON
Branchage Soundtracks... Teeth Of The Sea - Reaper
Teeth Of The Sea, London's most intrepid and adventurous psychedelic rock band, have always looked to the extraordinary and outlandish for inspiration, and have been as influenced by books and films as by music.

Some of their biggest influences are the films of Neil Marshall, with films like Dog Soldiers and The Descent both leaving their marks on the band's psyche. But by far the closest to the band's collective heart is Doomsday, the hyper-real, volatile and audacious 2008 Frankenstein's monster of a movie that follows a perilous journey to the maws of Armageddon.

In 2011 the band have decided to offer a re-imagining of the movie: the result, Reaper (named after the movie's killer virus), is a kind of psychedelic reconfiguration of the film; something truly original and nightmarishly thrilling.

More information can be found on the LSFF website.