What a fantastic weekend. I’ve never seen so many films in a short space of time, in so many interesting venues and it’s on my doorstep – heaven! The Aesthetica Short Film Festival was in it’s second year and already felt like an established, well organised event. I especially enjoyed the documentary strand and like all good film festivals there were a lot of screenings I didn’t get to. Some highlights were…

• My Wrongs – Chris Morris, UK
• Architecture Alive – Ole Stenum, Denmark
• On Another Note – Emma Dove, UK
• Gone Curling – Roland Kahurangi, New Zealand
• Three Blind Mice – Chris Whitehead, UK
• Dylan’s Room – Layke Anderson, UK
• Long Distance Information – Douglas Hart, UK
• Marichen – Katja Sambeth, Germany

Richard wrote a pre-festival blog post for Culture Vulture

I’ve written my first blog post for Culture Vulture about the wonderful Shipley Film Society and my recent evening there to watch ‘Once upon a time in Anomilia’. Read the full post over at Culture Vulture.

After my visit to Miniciné recently I didn’t think I would be in a smaller cinema anytime soon. Last night we visited Hambleton Forum in Northallerton for the launch of Contrast/brilliance, a new festival that screens archive film footage. The evening was full of highlights; amazing old film footage of Yorkshire, entertainment from Ian McMillan and a trip aboard the vintage mobile cinema bus. Perfect.

The evening was part of Cine Yorkshire and we made their website!

I love film and unique cinemas. Miniciné perfectly combines these two passions. They are a non-profit film society operating in the smallest cinema in the north of England. The 26 seat cinema in Leeds Industrial Museum is created from a reclaimed Edwardian picturehouse. The films are well chosen with a short documentary preceding the film. Our main attraction was Chop Shop. We grabbed a cuppa, piece of cake, soaked up the surroundings and sat back to enjoy the film.

Anne, curator of Nothing To See Here, describes the destinations featured on the website..

“Places that still have a certain charm, a bit of je-ne-sais-quoi about them. They’re a little bit special. No Been There, Done That, Bought The T-Shirt kind of places here. They won’t cost much (if anything) to get in and you’ll come away feeling a little bit richer”

I often come away from somewhere thinking “this would be perfect for Nothing to See Here”. This is the first time I have submitted a post. Red Rock Cinema, Reykjavík is certainly a special place and worthy of a mention.