2019 Guests and Special Events

Sometimes Always Never – Saturday 2nd March

We are thrilled to announce that Alice Lowe, one of the stars of Sometimes Always Never will be joining us for the screening on Saturday 2nd March at the Theatre by the Lake. Alice will be holding a Q&A after the screening, with Director Carl Hunter.

Alice is no stranger to Keswick. She starred in and co-wrote the wonderful black comedy Sightseers, released back in 2012, which featured the Pencil Museum as a key location in her character's bizarre and murderous adventures. Since then she has been a regular face on both the small screen (Inside Number 9, Hang-ups) and the big screen, notably as writer, director and star of Prevenge.

Jellyfish - Thursday 28th February and Sunday 3rd March

James is a director and screenwriter from Hereford, England. He is a graduate of the UK's National Film & Television School and known for writing and directing the short films Barry Glitter, The Car Washer and festival favourite Ferris & The Fancy Pigeon, which was shortlisted for Odeon's 'Best Short of the Year' and won the Royal Television Society award for 'Best Drama' in 2017. James's debut feature film Jellyfish premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018 and had its International premiere shortly after at Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it won the Award for 'Best Performance in a British Feature Film'. In September, Jellyfish won the Grand Jury, Critic, Screenplay and inaugural Performance 'Hitchcock' awards at Dinard Film Festival. In October, Jellyfish won 'Best Film' at the Rome Film Festival. In December, Jellyfish won the 'Golden Goats' Grand Jury award for Best Film, as well as the 'Marcin' Youth Jury award for Best Film at Poland's Ale Kino! Film Festival.

Sometimes Always Never – Saturday 2nd March

We are thrilled that Carl is coming back to Keswick with his first feature film, Sometimes Always Never.

Carl Hunter studied Graphic Design (BA) and Multimedia Design (MA) and worked as an art director designing record sleeves. He recorded and toured with Liverpool pop band The Farm, having numerous hit singles/albums both in Britain and Europe. His love of Graphic Design and Photography led to a career in film making as a director, producing and directing over 30 documentaries for broadcast, plus short films and music videos. He is also the creative director of the independent record label 'The Label'. Sometimes Always Never is his first feature film as director.

Since the early 2000s, Carl has worked closely with Frank Cottrell Boyce (writer of Millions and 24 Hour Party People). In 2007, they released the feature film Grow Your Own, a British comedy set on a Merseyside allotment which, notably, sold out the Studio at KFF. In 2009, Carl adapted the short story Accelerate, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, into a short film for KFF's 10th Anniversary.

Sparrowhawk – Friday 1st March

Starting with a background in punk rock and later musical and political fanzines and following a hiatus that involved travelling the world on a shoestring, getting a first class degree in Environmental Technology from Durham University, starting a family and beginning a career as a quarry inspector Mike returned to writing. He was approached by a Swiss production company to write the screenplay for The Last Blast in 2006 and following this he created a few screenplays for other companies. This created the desire to write and direct for himself and in 2013 his production company Broken Scar Productions released its first feature film Damaged Goods which was not only screened at Keswick Film Club but went on to be shown across the UK, Europe, the USA and Australasia. The principal production for Sparrowhawk was shot in 2017 and post production finally completed in September 2018.

A Long Hot Summer in Palestine - Sunday 3rd March

Norma describes herself as 'French of Palestinian origins'. She is a documentary film maker and writer, currently living in Paris. A Long Hot Summer in Palestine is the latest in a long career, which has seen her films such as Fragments Of A Lost Palestine, Waiting for Ben Gurion, The Veiled Hope and in 1990 a documentary on Yasser Arafat. Her films have been screened at Film Festivals and television networks across the world. Norma comes to Keswick after 3 screenings of A Long Hot Summer during a week of Palestinian films in the Loire Atlantique region of France.

William Wyler and the Memphis Belle – Sunday 3rd March

We are pleased to welcome Neil back to Keswick. Not only was Neil a speaker at the very first KFF in 2000, but he also interviewed Nic Roeg in Keswick in 2003, one of the more memorable moments in KFF's history. Anecdotally, it was Nic Roeg's only appearance at a UK film festival.

Neil is Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at the University of Hull. He is the author of 25 books on film, including studies of directors such as William Wyler, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Richard Lester and Jack Clayton. He has also written and provided commentaries and interviews for a number of dvd and Blu-ray releases.

His contacts with the Wyler family have led directly to us being able to screen the restored copy of The Memphis Belle.