PRESS RELEASE
22nd May 2014
Raindance hits the road
-Raindance Film Festival and Vue Entertainment announce first ever national tour Raindance Film Festival has today announced it will be taking a selection of standout independent films
on a special tour of Vue Cinemas across the country in a bid to share inspiring content outside of the
Capital. For the first time in its 22 year history, Raindance will take the best of the previous year’s Film
Festival to Vue Cinemas in six cities starting from Monday, 9th June 2014.
Movie lovers across the country will be treated to something different with three standout features that
cover the best of independent film from around the world including Argentinean romantic comedy The
Critic, British black comedy-come-horror Whoops! and Indian eco-documentary Powerless plus a
Short Film Showcase, all offering a taste of the quality and diversity that can only be offered by
independent filmmakers.
In addition, Raindance will be offering an insight into independent filmmaking with two special events.
The Raindance’99 Minute Film School’ will tell wannabe directors and producers everything they need
to know about the film industry in just over an hour and a half. And for real enthusiasts there will be a
48 Hour Filmmaking Challenge offering the chance to make a short film that will be awarded with a
screening at the Raindance Film Festival at Vue Piccadilly in London later this year.
Elliot Grove, Raindance Founder said: “Raindance as an organisation stands for not just supporting
film talent but fans as well, so taking the Festival on tour is the natural next step for us as we want to
make independent film accessible for everyone.”
Joanne Webb, Sales and Marketing Director at Vue Entertainment said: “We’ve recognised a thirst
for alternative content outside of London and we’re delighted to extend our partnership with Raindance
Film Festival to help deliver some fantastic content to film fans around the country.”
Tickets for the Raindance Film Festival Tour can be bought at www.myvue.com
-EndsFor more information, images or talent enquiries please contact:
Cally Sheard/ Ellie Tuck/ Siobhan Cooley/ Hollie Young
raindance@eulogy.co.uk/ 0203 077 2000
Notes to editors
Raindance Film Festival Tour dates
Edinburgh - 9th & 10th June
Vue Edinburgh Omni Centre, 61/11 Leith Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3AU
Gateshead - 11th & 12th June
Vue Gateshead Trinity Square, Trinity Square, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE8 1AG
Halifax - 16th & 17th June
Vue Halifax, 6 Broad Street, Halifax, HX1 1UX
Manchester - 18th & 19th June
Vue Manchester Lowry, Lowry Outlet Mall, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AH
Cardiff - 23rd & 24th June
Vue Cardiff, Stadium Plaza, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1LA
Portsmouth - 25th & 26th June
Vue Portsmouth, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, PO1 3TA
Ticket prices
Before 5pm - £4 concession/£5.50 Adult
After 5pm - £6 concession/7.50 Adult
Screening times
2.30pm
4.30pm
6.30pm
8.30pm
Day 1
The Critic (pre-view)
99 Minute Film School
Powerless
Whoops!
Day 2
Whoops! (repeat)
Shorts Programme
The Critic
48 Hour Film Challenge
Films
The Critic
Film critic Victor Tellez (played by the wonderfully deadpan Rafael Spregelburd) is getting sick of watching terrible film after
terrible film and discussing them with the same old band of critics in the same old coffee shop after each screening.
Stuck in a rut, his friend suggests he should write his own film, whilst his sister and niece think that he needs to meet
somebody. Victor doesn’t think he needs romance so he decides to write a film, and determines that his current abode isn’t
suitable for such activity. Whilst viewing an apartment amysterious woman called Sophia (Dolores Fonzi) steps in to buy the
place from under him. Meeting Sophia turns Victor’s life upside down. Before he knows what’s hit him, Victor’s life has become
one of the romantic comedies that he hates so much, complete with all the nauseating clichés that go along with the genre.
Former film critic HernanGuerschuny, who serves as writer/ director here, has crafted wonderfully warm, funny and postmodern film in The Critic. It does for the romantic comedy what Scream did for the horror film.
Whoops!
Rose Clements works in real estate. Her husband Dave is a land- scape gardener. They have two kids, a suburban home and a
van. Everything fairly normal then until one fateful, unlucky evening, when the eponymous “whoops” kicks in with popcornspittingly funny – and pretty macabre - results. Whoops! is an effortlessly entertaining gory family comedy, spattered with
dark humour, grisly violence and awkward scenes at the dinner table. Writer/Directors Miles Watts and Tony Hipwell have an
appreciation for the absurdly bloody, slightly cheesy murder scenes of ‘80s’ and ‘90s’ horror films, and in Whoops! they work
an absolute treat, complimenting the gruesomely funny atmosphere. At its heart however,Whoops! is the moving story of a
perfect couple,madly in love and battling the odds together for theirfamily. Featuring some great performances by
ElaineGlover and Phil Rowson as the hapless couple, OlwenMay as a no-bullshit inspector and Andrew Dunn as asleazy, sexpest boss (skin-crawling line #32: “Hard atwork? So am I”), this production has assembled quitesome talent and it has paid off
with a fantastic film.The humour is perfectly pitched, whilst sweaty-handssuspenseful moments match every laugh, but it is
Roseand Dave’s tender relationship that will stay with youafter the credits roll.
Powerless
In most places the simple flick of a light switch occurs a count- less amount of times each day. But in Kapur, ‘electricity poverty’
reigns: over 400,000 people live without viable electricity. The film opens with some insider terminology; a Katiya is an illegal
wire used to steal electricity. Katiyabaaz is a master of these illegal wires. 28 year-old Loha Singh is a Katiyabaaz,stealing
electricity from the better off and diverting it to his neighbourhood, to the frustration of the RituMaheshwari, director of the
Kapur Electric- ity Supply Company (KESCO). But far from painting the situa- tion as a simple Robin Hood scenario, Powerless
is determined to explore the issue from both sides and illuminate the serious electricity crisis in India. Combining energetic
handheld footage with statuesque crane-shots, the documentary’s 3 cinematographers have captured the hurly-burly Kapur
city life, from the life-in-his- hands moments when Singh taps into the power, to the offices where Ritu faces hostility as a
woman in power. A vibrant film exploring a typically modern problem, Powerless is not to be missed.
About Raindance Film Festival
Now in its 22nd year, Raindance Film Festival is Europe’s leading independent Film Festival showcasing feature films, shorts and
docs from around the world and specialising in independent films and directorial debuts. The festival has a strong legacy of
showing alternative, edgy films. Since 1993 Raindance Film Festival has uncovered the hottest new filmmakers to hit the cinematic
scene. Raindance-premiered hits include Pulp Fiction, Memento, the Blair Witch Project, Ghost World and Love Exposure. Listed by
Variety as one of the world’s top 50 ‘unmissable film festivals’, Raindance aims to nurture, support and promote independent films
and filmmakers from the UK and around the world
About Vue
Formed in May 2003, Vue Entertainment is a world class operator and developer of modern state-of-the-art multiplex cinemas.
Following the recent acquisition of the Apollo UK circuit in May 2012, the takeover of CinemaxX in July 2012 and the
acquisition of Multikino in May 2013, Vue is now operating over 1,300 screens across 146 multiplex cinemas in the UK, Ireland,
Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Taiwan. For further information visit www.myvue.com