Ex-Python Terry Jones to appear at Encounters

Ex-Python Terry Jones returns to the big screen with a vengeance over the next month or so. On Friday, the sci-fi comedy Absolutely Anything, his first dramatic feature since The Wind in the Willows back in 1996, opens in multiplexes. Then on Wednesday September 16, he brings his documentary Boom Bust Boom to Bristol as part of the Encounters Festival in association with the Festival of Ideas.

Boom Bust Boom puts an inevitably Python-esque spin on the potentially rather dry subject of why economic crashes happen. Indeed, it’s probably the only economics documentary ever to incorporate animation, puppetry and song as it explores ways of getting out of the endless damaging cycle of boom and bust. Jones will be present to talk about the film with producer Ben Timlett after the screening. This is also part of the build-up to the upcoming Festival of Ideas spin-off, The Bristol Festival of Economics (Nov 12-14). Advance tickets for Boom Bust Boom are available here.

This year’s 21st annual Encounters short film and animation festival runs for five days from September 15-20 at the Watershed and Arnolfini. There are 219 films screened in total, whittled down from 2200 submissions. Some 35 countries are represented in 21 competition programmes. Contenders who bag the festival’s coveted awards qualify for entry to the Oscars, BAFTAs, European Film Awards and Cartoon d’Or. There are also programmes devoted to comedy, music video, outré shorts (the legendary Late Lounge) and children’s films.

The packed animation programme includes the UK premiere of the new film by Bristol-based veteran Richard Williams, whose credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His Prologue promises a “short and bloody sword battle.”

Encounters also features a retrospective of the work of French director Ursula Meier, who’s best known for 2012’s Sister. She’ll be present for a discussion with John Parish on Saturday September 19.

This year, Encounters celebrates the 75th anniversary of the founding of what was once the UK’s biggest animation company: Halas and Batchelor. There will be a special screening of a digitally remastered version of the duo’s 1954 landmark adaptation of Animal Farm – the first feature-length British animated film to be given a theatrical release. Joy Batchelor and John Halas’s daughter Vivien Halas will be present to introduce this and other screenings from the Halas and Batchelor archive.

The Shorts2Features strand highlights short film directors who’ve gone on to make features. Stephen Fingleton’s sci-fi thriller The Survivalist is screened on Sept 18. He’ll be present for Q&A, as will Peter Nicholson, whose psychological thriller Dartmoor Killing (Sept 16) gets a national release two days later. Busy Mr. Nicholson will also be at the Orpheus on Sept 19 and the Curzon in Clevedon on Oct 1.

There’s plenty for aspiring filmmakers too. Among the talks and events is an Aardman Panel on Comedy Writing for Animation on Friday 18. Participants include Shaun the Sheep co-director Mark Burton and Angry Kid creator Darren Walsh.

For more on Encounters, visit the official website.