London Breeze is fore-fronting women filmmakers and female-led films for their eleventh edition festival with over half of the programme given over to women’s films, including their headline opening and closing films. There will also be two of their fourteen shorts programmes dedicated to women’s films as well as new partners for this year’s programme, Girls on Tops, being part of the curation team. Breeze’s annual live pitching competition is being given over to short documentary pitches from women filmmakers and will be held at The Garden Cinema on 25th October.
London Breeze’s Gala Opening Film is the UK premiere of LOVE CHAOS KIN, the multi-award winning second feature documentary from Tamil writer and director, Chithra Jeyaram. This red-carpet screening event is on 21st October at London’s oldest film house, Regent Street Cinema.
What happens when an Indian immigrant mother decides her adopted children deserve to know everything- their White birth mother, their Navajo father, and every complicated truth in between?
Spanning 12 years, Love Chaos Kin is an intimate, patient, and humorous look at a transracial adoptive family redefining identity and belonging.
Director Chithra Jeyaram will be travelling over from the US for the UK premiere and will join the Breeze team on stage for a Q&A. Earlybird tickets for this red-carpet event, which includes a complimentary glass of bubbly and a goody bag, are available now from Regent Street Cinema.
Chithra Jeyaram is a physical therapist-turned-filmmaker dedicated to exploring the resilience and love within biological and chosen families. Her documentary, LOVE CHAOS KIN, highlights a multicultural family in an open adoption, showcasing an inclusive and connected America. She produced the acclaimed short AMMA’S PRIDE, which champions trans rights and marriage equality. She is currently writing her debut narrative screenplay, The Longest Summer.
The score is composed by Vivek Maddala, a four-time Emmy® award-winning composer and multi-instrumental performer known for composing film scores for Kaboom and Highway.
Box office link: London Breeze Film Festival Opening Gala Film: LOVE CHAOS KIN + Q&A and Reception
The red carpet will also be out for London Breeze’s closing gala and awards ceremony on 25th October. Another UK premiere, the festival’s final film is an unusual family murder mystery. Such a Vivid Imagination is a UK drama made for a family audience and with the full support of the local community (talent, resources and spirit) of Nailsworth in the Cotswolds. This is the debut feature of German born director Ina Lüders and writer Dave Fedash, starring a young cast led by exceptional talent, Sheherazad Farrel (A House in Jerusalem). The film is produced by Julia Gurry of musical duo, Belle Rosco and has already won Best Narrative Feature at the 15th Berlin Women Cinema Festival in May.
Farrel plays twelve-year-old Celia whose imagination becomes a dangerous refuge after she uncovers her mother’s affair and a body lying in the woods. Aided by her cousins, Celia becomes consumed with uncovering the murderer, even as her grip on reality fractures further, pulling her into a perilous mystery where the line between witness and suspect blurs.
Meet the director, writer, producer and members of the cast in a Q&A and stay for the London Breeze awards ceremony immediately after to celebrate the best of the festival. Tickets are on sale now from Riverside Studios.
Box Office Link: London Breeze Film Festival Gala Closing Film + Awards: Such a Vivid Imagination (UK) + Q&A | Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios The film festival is also mounting its biggest industry programme to date. Head of Industry, Irene Moncada, who joined them earlier this year, has put together a top notch programme across the five days of the festival. Highlights include ‘The Sound of Storytelling’ – turning the spotlight on the art of music and sound with a special afternoon dedicated to exploring their creative impact on filmmaking, with Oscar winning music supervisor and editor, John Warhurst (Bohemian Rhapsody/Michael) and music supervisor Kathleen Wallfisch (Napoleon).
An Industry Roundtables event opens the industry programme with informal roundtable discussions hosted by leading industry professionals such as Thomas Pullen, Digital Commissioning Executive and Ad-Funded Programming Lead, Channel 4 and executive producer Kamila Serkebay, (Kneecap/Lady). This event is now on sale at Regent Street Cinema with the rest of the programme to follow on 14th September.
Box Office Link: London Breeze Film Festival Industry Roundtables
Festival programmer, Madeleine Casey, says:
‘The Breeze curation team has had three guiding principles for our eleventh edition. We are putting women’s films front and centre because that is where they deserve to be, despite what awards seasons suggest. We are taking a deep-dive into music and sound design as part of our extended industry programme, selecting films with standout music and sound. Finally, we were inspired by this year’s Refugee Week theme of ‘courage’. It takes courage to make a film and release it into the world. And many filmmakers shine a light on the bravery of ordinary people, giving us windows into worlds we know little or nothing about. We are also inspired by Zineb Sedira’s immersive exhibition at Tate Britain, ‘When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks’. Both our opening and closing gala films exemplify these elements strongly, amplifying women’s voices, stories of brave hearts, identity and belonging, ambitious filmmaking and standout scores. Audiences will see these shine through the whole LBFF programme this year, which we will announce in full on 14th September.’
Festival founder and executive director, Sam Cullis says:
‘This year feels like a real coming of age for London Breeze. As we enter our 11th edition, our festival is maturing and becoming more ambitious, with our biggest industry programme yet and an important focus on women in filmmaking. There’s also a wonderful musical thread running through the programme, which feels particularly personal to me having grown up in a family of musicians. Most excitingly, this has been our hardest selection yet; the quality of entries was so extraordinarily high that choosing between films has often felt almost impossible. I can’t wait for audiences to discover the filmmakers and stories we’re bringing to the capital this October.
