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Latitude additions - Stephen Frears, Lightspeed Champion, Glen Wool and more!

The pioneering, award-winning Latitude Festival returns to England ’s Sunrise Coast for another spectacular edition. Taking place on 16th – 19th July, near Suffolk ’s stunning seaside town of Southwold , organisers Festival Republic are promising Latitude will be the perfect British summer destination.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts returns to the festival for a third year and is proud to present a dynamic series of events in 2009. At this year’s festival there will be a number of constructive and captivating workshops, Q&A’s and forums that are all about audience participation!
This year BAFTA presents a stellar line up of events including an on-stage interview with BAFTA and Oscar winning director Stephen Frears; a Q&A with BAFTA-winning director Shane Meadows and BAFTA-winning director and actor Paddy Considine alongside a special premiere of their anticipated new mock-rockumentary Le Donk; and fresh from causing a storm at Sundance festival, an exclusive preview of the new film White Lightnin’ accompanied by a Q&A with its star, Edward Hogg.
Highly acclaimed indie film director Shane Meadows brings his latest faux-documentary to Latitude audiences. Having been shot on $50,000 in just five days with no script or funding and a limited crew, ‘Le Donk’ arrives as a short film having first surfaced on ‘One Upon A Time In The Midlands’ DVD extras. After the success and huge critical acclaim of Shane Meadow’s BAFTA Best British Film winner ‘This Is England’, this mock rock-umentary tells the story of the doomed roadie and his hapless charge, real-life Nottingham rapper Scorz-ay-zee, described by Donk at one point as the “Honey Monster with a lobotomy”. The film documents Donk’s attempts to gatecrash the Arctic Monkeys’ 2007 Old Trafford show and get Scorz an opening slot. The film features not only Olivia Colman (Hot Fuzz, Peep Show) and Paddy Considine as the ex-builder, ex-drummer Donk, but also the band Arctic Monkeys. Following the screening, BAFTA winning director Shane Meadows and lead actor Paddy Considine will take part in a Q&A session.

Inspired by the life of the Appalachian "dancing outlaw", ’White Lightnin’ is Dominic Murphy’s first feature film and fictional tribute to the dancer and violent career criminal Jesco White. Starring alongside Carrie Fisher, newcomer Edward Hogg has been steadily building a name as someone to watch. Playing the tortured genius, Hogg goes deep into the dark corners of artistic genius, addiction, and insanity. Jesco White's real life story includes stays in a mental institution, a bit part in Roseanne and copious drug use. Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs composed the music to accompany the film and his score features distorted sounds and melodies to reflect the main characters’ conflicting personalities. Bearing witness to the dual powers of revenge and redemption, and the bone-chilling lengths that White will go to have both, in this sensational film narrated from the fictional moment of Jesco’s death we discover a strict, crazy, illiterate, and fundamentalist man that dictates life with a religious style. Following the screening of this premiere, Edward Hogg will participate in what is sure to be a very special Q&A session.

Acclaimed singer, songwriter and composer Lightspeed Champion a.k.a. Devonte Hynes will be singing the classic songs from cult 1971 film ‘Harold and Maude’. The original soundtrack was penned and performed by Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) and includes two songs, ‘Don't Be Shy’ and ‘If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out’ that he composed specifically for the movie. Harold and Maude directed by Hal Ashby is a fantastic love story full of slapstick, dark humour and existentialist drama, that revolves around the exploits of a morbid young man – Harold and his relationship with septuagenarian Maude. The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time, number 69 in its list for most romantic and number 42 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In what will be a very special live performance from Dev Hynes performing Cat Steven’s songs from the much loved film, this will be unmissable.

Coinciding with what will be a phenomenal festival finale by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds the Film & Music Arena will be hosting a pre-release screening of the fifth film in Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's ongoing ‘Do You Love Me Like I Love You’ series of 14 films commissioned by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to accompany the reissues of their influential catalogue. This advance screening will be followed by an audience Q&A session with Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. This particular film focuses on the Tender Prey album, originally released by Mute in 1988, and including the legendary 'Mercy Seat'. The films themselves are the creation of artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard and each 40 minute film is a collection of straight to camera pieces from fans and collaborators, including Kid Congo Powers, Blixa Bargeld, Flood, Bobby Gillespie, Alan Vega, Nick Zinner, Simon Reynolds, Kris Needs, Mark Arm, Sean Hughes, Daniel Miller and Noah Taylor. The result is a subjective human portrait of the truly unique body of work produced by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds over the last 25 years, told through those who have lived and loved the music. A must for any Nick Cave fan!

As well as presenting his legendary Book Club over in the Literary Arena, Robin Ince pitches up in the Comedy Arena to perform his critically acclaimed show, ‘Bleeding Heart Liberal’. The show is all about astronomers with noses made of gold, crazed fundamentalists, TV spats with Vanessa Feltz, Charles Darwin, the behaviour of bonobos and the poo fairy, plus pretty much anything else Robin has read about in the last year. Robin has made many TV appearances on programmes The News Quiz, Just A Minute, Loose Ends, The Now Show, and Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive as well as Mock the Week, The Office, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Lab Rats, and Richard and Judy. He also supported Ricky Gervais on his recent arena shows. Robin is also the winner of Time Out Outstanding Achievement in Comedy Award, two Chortle Awards and was nominated for a British XComedy award for best live show.

Another Canadian comic Glen Wool is also confirmed for the Comedy Arena. His material veers between sagely political and gleefully silly, discussing both the pop group Franz Ferdinand and the Pope's contribution to cryogenic programmes. Wool starred in a self-titled show produced for Channel 4's ‘comedy lab’ season in 2004. The show saw him attempting to exorcise a ghost from his place of residence. His random flights of fancy and hilarious ad hoc stories are a must see.

Joining the Comedy Arena line-up is clever and controversial Canadian comic Tom Stade. In demand around the globe, he is a versatile and naturally gifted performer who quickly became a star in Canada , appearing in the critically acclaimed sitcom The Newsroom and the award-winning feature film My Own Private Oshawa. As a stand-up he starred in Club 54, Open Mike, and Comics, as well as hosting his own show on CBC/Comedy Central Stade And Confused and has appeared on every series of Paramount/Channel 5’s The Comedy Store, BBC TV’s The Live Floor Show, Comedy Central/ Paramount’s The World Stands Up, ITV2’s Comedy Cuts and BBC1’s Primetime Show Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.

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Comment Posted on: June 30, 2009, 09:34 PM