Ladies and Gentlemen – come and help us open the festival in style. We take a collection of the hottest films from competition, mix them with some of our favourite classics from the special programmes and add in a couple of the top new British films. This is the essential LIAF showbag and the numbers are strictly limited.
Plus – we have a very special screening of ‘For No Good Reason’, the brand new feature film exploring the connection between life and art through the eyes of seminal British artist, Ralph Steadman.
To top the evening off we‘ll follow the screening with an onstage discussion with the seminal British artist himself – Ralph Steadman, as well as ‘For No Good Reason’ Director Charlie Paul and Animation Director Kevin Richards. There will be lots to talk about – literally hundreds of Ralph’s artworks have been captured by a stop-frame camera positioned above his work-table for the past 10 years. For the first time, animated sequences have been created from his original art, including the complete collection of drawings from Hunter S Thompson’s ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’.
This gala opening is the essential LIAF showbag and a great preview of the 11 days ahead. Come one, come all – but book early!
Special thanks to Itch Film for making this screening possible.
‘For No Good Reason’ (Charlie Paul, 2012)
Johnny Depp pays a call on his friend and hero Ralph Steadman and we take off on a high-spirited, lyrical, raging and soulful journey discovering the life and works of one of the most important radical British artists of modern times.
Steadman rose to prominence in the early 70’s when his impassioned and stirring images gained recognition through popular cultural publications and press both in the UK and US for their bold comment on world politics and human rights infringements.
‘For No Good Reason’ is a richly creative, visual feast of a film about the power and importance of art to achieve Steadman’s aim “I learnt to draw…to try to change the world”. Director Charlie Paul spent 15 years meticulously amassing the footage and creating the remarkable animations for the film to match the same anarchic energy, anger and free spirit of Steadman’s pictures. It is riot of stories and images that literally blast out of the screen as we take a trip through the wild and dark days of Steadman’s time and consignments with ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas’ writer Hunter S Thompson, the Rumble in the Jungle, gun fights with literary giant William S Burroughs and his fiercely heart-felt politics.
Through Depp’s lead in this intimate portrait, we are able to reach to the heart of what make this artist tick, his friendships and fallings out, his love for art and passion for civil liberties.
This is an inventive, energetic, occasionally harrowing but inspiring and uplifting film with contributions from Terry Gilliam, Richard E Grant and music from Slash, All American Rejects, Jason Mraz, James Blake, Ed Harcourt and Crystal Castles, all ‘For No Good Reason’.
FOR NO GOOD REASON TRAILER from Itch Film on Vimeo.
