Presented in partnership, as part of CINECITY The Brighton Film Festival

Programme approximately 74 minutes. Running order may vary

ALBERT
DIR: JOSHUA G.R. FLETCHER. 17 MINS.

Set against the windswept cliffs and hidden coves of 17th-century Guernsey, this folk-thriller follows Sarre, a reclusive man in possession of a forbidden book. On discovering its apparent strange power, the island’s righteous Rector urges him to renounce the book and seek salvation, but can he?

FRAGMENTS OF A SPACE HOP
DIR: IAN HELLIWELL. 5 MINS.

An experimental collage film with a soundtrack of electronics and tape loops. The found footage content is all derived from amateur 8mm cine film shot in the 60s and 70s, carefully pieced together to include split-screen sequences and a close image-sound relationship.

I’M NOT BRILLIANT
DIR: JULIAN KERRIDGE. 6 MINS.

Elsie wants out. Donna, her overly keen carer, just wants to help. But when a final drink collides with a hen do meltdown, Elsie’s curtain call becomes an unexpected encore.

LOVE NOTES TO NATURE
DIR: JOANNA SUCHOMSKA. 4 MINS.

Writer Dal Kular embarks on a journey through roots and ancestry to make sense of her connection to the land she calls home. Weaving themes of displacement, resistance, and belonging, the film explores how reconnecting with nature can be a powerful act of healing.

NORTON GRIM AND ME
DIR: TONY GAMMIDGE. 9 MINS.

In this autobiographical tale, alter ego Norton Grim emerges from the author’s fevered imagination, ‘conceived on his first night of boarding school, born some years later on a scrap of paper’. Though a dark and troubled character, he helps the author through art-making and storytelling survive these early ‘traumatic’ experiences.

SERUMEL
DIR: KATE GREY. 10 MINS.

A Woman prepares a young girl’s body for burial. The woman believes there has been a miscarriage of justice and uses her knowledge to try and calm the girl’s restless spirit. SERUMEL is inspired by a real event, seen through the prism of a supernatural folktale.

SURPRISE!
DIR: DAVID GARDNER. 11 MINS.

Surprise! is a one take horror-comedy about a group of ruthless upper-class parents who try to teach a working-class mum and their own children about sacrifice, education and how to be a winner. At the film’s bloody climax - Sam and the kids must decide whether to put their education into practice and become - by the parents’ definition - ‘winners’.

WHILE YOU WAIT
DIR: DAN JAY STOCKMANN. 13 MINS.

A documentary celebrating the presenters of Mid Downs Radio – a hospital radio station that brings humour, companionship and therapeutic benefits to the hospital patients, staff, and the presenters themselves.