Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 – Unconventional Storytelling
RADIANT CIRCUS is proud to be a judge & awards sponsor for Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 (29 JUN to 05 JUL), the UK’s only festival dedicated to short form documentary. Our sponsored award category is Unconventional Storytelling, so we thought we’d introduce you to the coming attractions!
By RADIANT CIRCUS
Twitter @radiantcircus | Instagram @radiantcircus
RADIANT CIRCUS is delighted to be joining Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 as a judge and award sponsor for the Unconventional Storytelling strand. The UK’s only festival dedicated to short form documentary filmmaking, this year’s event will take place online from 29 JUN to 05 JUL. With many films available to watch internationally, this looks set to be a truly global event.
The Unconventional Storytelling stand at Cheap Cuts is all about films that use different techniques and approaches to find new and innovative ways to push the boundaries of documentary. That means we’re looking for stories that are being presented in ways that seem original and show how seemingly familiar ideas of what makes a ‘documentary’ are constantly evolving. There are five films screening in this strand and a number of others in competition for the Unconventional Storytelling Award sponsored by RADIANT CIRCUS.
All of the films are available to stream for the full week of the festival, from 29 JUN to 05 JUL, so you can watch when you like (not forgetting to vote for coveted Audience Award!). Access to some of the films is limited to the UK according to the wishes of the filmmakers. Ticketing is via a single Festival Pass which gets you everywhere you need to go and is offered this year on a ‘pay what you can’ basis. You can find out all about ticketing and everything else in our Cheap Cuts 2020 overview.
> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <
UNCONVENTIONAL STORYTELLING
We love the Unconventional Storytelling strand because in many ways it echoes the origins of RADIANT CIRCUS. Our blogging started when, as a new arrival in London, our founder and barker-in-chief began hunting for more adventurous moving pictures across London’s alternative cinema scene. True to our own independent spirit, it’s a category that gives filmmakers real scope to create original works that define their own rules and, often, invite audiences to untangle riddles throughout their brief runtime.
With three out of the five films in the official Unconventional Storytelling strand made by women from across the globe, it’s also a category that has no respect for hierarchies, borders and boundaries. If you want to be surprised, maybe even baffled, but certainly have an appetite for distinctive filmmaking, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s see what you’ll find…
SONDERS by Chloe Abrahams
[2:50 mins | UK | 2017]
Through an account of an out-of-body experience, SONDERS is an exploration into the performativity of retelling memories.
- Available from 29 JUN to 05 JUL in all territories
- Out of competition
THE FEAR OF DYING IN TRANSIT by Ian Purnell
[28 mins | Germany | 2018]
In a replica of a segment of the new Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland, the underground landscape becomes a site for filmic and sensory experimentation in which we are immersed for a hypnotic and ironic journey. Facts dissolve within the realm of phobias and science fiction.
- Available from 29 JUN to 05 JUL in all territories
- Competition – Unconventional Storytelling
ANCORA LUCCIOLE (STILL FIREFLIES) by María Elorza
[14 mins | Spain | 2018]
In 1972, in one of his best-known articles, Pier Paolo Pasolini spoke of the disappearance of fireflies. A few months later he was murdered. Since then the fireflies have continued to disappear. But there are still people who remember them.
- Available from 29 JUN to 05 JUL in all territories
- Competition – Unconventional Storytelling
FUNDAMENTS by Peter Cerovšek
[23 mins | Slovenia | 2019]
The director of the film follows the construction of a luxury hotel through his kitchen window. Fragments of the dissolution of his relationship unintentionally sneak into the recorded material and shake the very foundations of the film.
- Available from 29 JUN to 05 JUL in all territories
- Competition – Unconventional Storytelling
BACK TO WONDERLAND by Alice Fargier
[28 mins | France | 2019]
Alice and Rossella leave Paris for Geneva. One is on the trail of her past, the other flees the fragility of her present. The two friends travel the roads with a camera, a unique witness of their adventures.
- Available from 29 JUN to 05 JUL in all territories
- Competition – Unconventional Storytelling
> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <
Main featured image: THE FEAR OF DYING IN TRANSIT by Ian Purnell at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.
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