25th Anniversary. Set in Japan during World War II, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES focuses on Seita and his little sister Setsuko. After their mother I skilled in an air raid, and with their father serving in the navy, they are forced to fight for survival in the devastated Japanese countryside. Food and shelter are scarce, and even their own relatives are too concerned with their own survival. All they have is each other and their belief that life must carry on. Takahata and his team, including character animator Yoshifumi Kondo, have created a visually stunning and emotionally powerful meditation on the devastating consequences of war.

Certificate: 12A     Distributor: Studio Canal

Dir. Isao Takahata, Japan, 1988, 89 mins, subtitles

Cast: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara

Re-Issue.  Jack Nicholson continues a successful collaboration with director Bob Rafelson, having previously worked together on Five Easy Pieces, to play the lead role of David Staebler (one which Al Pacino was originally offered before deciding to star in The Godfather).

The majority of the film is set in Atlantic City with crafted cinematography by famed László Kovács who eerily films a landscape of yet-to-be-built casino-hotels. Rafelson’s mature work is mixed with moments of surreality and a relationship between two brothers from very different walks of life who team up for an inevitably doomed series of get-rich-quick schemes (David is a depressed radio DJ while his sibling, Jason is an ex-con who dreams big).

The King of Marvin Gardens remains a work of tragedy, in classic ménage-à-trois format (the brothers’ escapades are joined by Jason’s beauty queen partner Sally), that holds it own amidst a pantheon of great works of American cinema from a celebrated decade.

Certificate: 15     Distributor: Park Circus

Dir. Bob Rafelson, US, 1972, 103 mins

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn

Director Mary Harron adapts author Rachel Klein’s portentous novel about a teenage boarding-school student who fears that a mysterious newcomer has cast a dark spell over her cherished best friend. In the aftermath of her father’s suicide, Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) had a difficult time making an emotional recovery. That all changed when she met Lucy (Sarah Gadon), a fellow student who helped to draw her out of her deep depression.

Upon returning for their next semester at Brangwyn College, however, Rebecca and Lucy begin drifting apart following the arrival of Ernessa (Lily Cole), a moody new student who takes an immediate liking to Lucy and accosts her at every opportunity.

When Rebecca’s teacher Mr. Davies (Scott Speedman) gives his class the assignment of reading Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic gothic novel Carmilla, Rebecca begins to suspect Ernessa of being a vampire intent on consuming Lucy’s life force.

Those suspicions seem to be confirmed when the students and staff of the school begin dying under mysterious circumstances and Lucy falls gravely ill. But the more Rebecca reaches out to Mr. Davies for help, the more unstable she begins to appear. Left with no other choice in order to save the life of her best friend, Rebecca vows to reveal Ernessa for what she truly is, and in the process makes a disturbing discovery.

Certificate: 15     Distributor: Lionsgate

Dir. Mary Harron, Canada/Ireland, 2011, 82 mins

Cast: Sarah Bolger, Sarah Gadon, Lily Cole, Scott Speedman

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25th Anniversary. While their mother recovers from an illness, Satsuki and her little sister Mei get away from it all in an idyllic rural retreat. Far from the bustle of the city, they discover a mysterious place of spirits and magic, and the friendship of the Totoro woodland creatures. Conceived as a family film devoid of conflict and suffused with the joy of country living, MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO is a masterpiece for the whole family, uniting the unique vision of Hayao Miyazaki with a  feel-good tale of childlike wonder and true originality.

Certificate: U     Distributor: Studio Canal

Dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1988, 82 mins, subtitles

Cast: Toshiyuki Amagasa, Paul Butcher, Noriko Hidaka

Paris in the early 70′s. Gilles, a young high school student, is taken in by the political and creative turmoil of the times. Much like his friends, he is torn between his radical commitment and his personal ambitions. Through romantic encounters and artistic discoveries, Gilles and his friends’ journeys take them to Italy and then London. Further down the line, they will have to make definitive choices in order to find their place in these turbulent times.

Certificate: 15     Distributor: Curzon Film World

Dir. Olivier Assayas, France, 2012, 122 mins, subtitles

Cast: Clement Matayer, Lola Creton, Felix Armand

The 50^th Anniversary of the 1963 masterpiece CLEOPATRA will be celebrated with a limited engagement theatrical release; it was announced today by Twentieth Century Fox.

Screenings will be held from the 12^th July at Curzon May Fair, London and select cinemas nationwide. The 243-minute original theatrical version of CLEOPATRA has been meticulously restored to commemorate its golden anniversary. This new digitally restored transfer received a world theatrical premiere as an official selection of Cannes Classics at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on May 21.

Directed by Academy Award® winner Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the historical epic shot on 70mm film took home four Academy Awards and was the highest grossing films of 1963 earning more than $57 million in its initial release. CLEOPATRA infamously cost an unprecedented $42 million to make (equivalent to over $300 million today) and was racked with scandal as the onscreen love affair between Cleopatra (Taylor) and Mark Antony (Burton) spilled over into real life during the three-year production in Rome. Burton celebrated his great love for Ms. Taylor with exquisite gifts from Bulgari.

In 51 BC, Cleopatra became queen of the Egyptian Empire: the wealthiest and most revered kingdom the world has ever known. More than 2,000 years later Twentieth Century Fox Studios set out to tell her epic story in what would become, at the time, the most ambitious and lavish moviemaking endeavor in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Taylor signed a one million dollar contract to play the title role of Cleopatra, becoming the first female star to command such a sum for one picture. Elaborate sets and costumes, production delays and the relocation of principal filming from London to Rome added to the skyrocketing budget.

CLEOPATRA will be available for the first time ever on Digital HD beginning 28^th May 2013. In addition to the film, this HD premiere on iTunes features the 80-minute documentary “Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood,” made up of film clips, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews that explore the fascinating stories behind this 5-year production.

The CLEOPATRA 50^th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray is currently available to own. The 2-disc set is packed with dazzling bonus materials featuring never-before-seen exclusive content including Cleopatra’s lost footage, commentary from Chris Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz, Martin Landau and Jack Brodsky, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more. Additionally, fans can watch footage from the film’s original theatrical premieres in both New York and Los Angeles.

David is a small-time pot dealer whose clientele includes chefs and soccer moms, but no kids—after all, he has his scruples. So what could go wrong? Plenty. Having been jumped by a trio of gutter punks who steal his stash and his cash, they leave him in major debt to a drug lord.

In order to wipe the slate clean, David must now become a big-time drug smuggler by bringing Brad’s latest shipment in from Mexico. Twisting the arms of his neighbours including a cynical stripper, a wannabe customer and a tatted-and-pierced streetwise teen, he devises a fool proof plan.

One fake wife, two pretend kids and a huge, shiny campervan later, the “Millers” are on a roadtrip that is sure to end with a bang.

UK Release date: 23rd August 2013

Production I.G, the Tokyo-based studio that brought you Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 animation segment, presents 009 RE:CYBORG, a mature and thought-provoking approach to Shotaro Ishinomori’s classic manga, Cyborg 009 from the director of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

1964: Nine regular humans from different parts of the world are abducted and transformed into cyborgs with astounding powers for the purpose of being used as weapons. The nine cyborgs rebel and start to fight against their creators in the name of justice. But as their struggle finally restored world peace, they eventually disappeared from the pages of history and from people’s memory.

2013: Skyscrapers across the world are hit by suicide bombers with no apparent connection. The nine heroes gather once again after 27 years to fight against this faceless menace. They appear untouched by time, but society around them has changed dramatically, as it has the very idea of “justice”: they used to believe in… What is their role in the world now?

The animation in 009 RE:CYBORG is fully computer-generated but treated with cel-shader, a program designed to keep the look of traditional Japanese 2D animation.

Music by Kenji Kawai (Apocalypse, Avalon, Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers). Sound design by Tom Myers at Skywalker Sound (WALL-E, Toy Story 3).

009: RE:CYBORG will be released by Anime Ltd on 7 June 2013.

The only UK‐wide celebration of environmental films 1st – 8th June 2013

London / Glasgow / Cambridge / Birmingham / Cardiff / Newcastle / Brighton / Nottingham / Leicester /Inverness / Ormskirk / South Shields / Dumfries / Leeds / Bristol

Full screenings listing >> www.ukgreenfilmfestival.org/screenings.html

Opening Gala Saturday 1st June, 7pm Hackney Picturehouse

UK Premiere: More Than Honey ft. skype Q&A with director Markus Imhoof

Closing Awards Ceremony Saturday 8th June, 7pm Hackney Picturehouse

Special Screening: Trashed ft. Q&A with director Candida Brady & Jeremy Irons

The UK Green Film Festival 2013, sponsored by Friends of the Earth, returns for a third year ready to inform, entertain, challenge and inspire a UK wide audience of cinema‐goers. The only environmental film festival in the UK, this year the UKGFF is reaching its ‘green’ arms further with more than 50 screenings across 15 cities nationwide, including 10 London screenings, galas and awards in partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas. The screening programme foregrounds local and global environmental issues and offers 7 feature‐length films (3 UK premieres); 5 of them documentaries and 2 stunning blends of drama and non‐fiction. All features are coupled with a unique short offering its own alternative vision.

Programme highlights include: The UK premiere of Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof’s visually stunning look at the world bee crisis More than Honey, multi award‐winning documentary Trashed featuring Jeremy Irons, two very different love stories blurring the lines between the real and the imagined Valley of Saints and Future My Love as well as UK Premieres of Erik Schmitt’s quirky and surprising green‐doc meets road‐movie Solar Taxi and the eye‐opening documentary set in the alpine ski resorts Peak.

“The UK Green Film Festival provides a platform for films that deal with environmental issues, not just the global issues of climate change and energy but also our personal connection to our environment, how we can better understand and ultimately protect the world around us.”

Daniel Beck, Festival Director

Discussion, interaction and the opportunity to challenge and explore issues raised by the films (spanning waste, climate change, sustainable cities and technology as well as social and political issues) is at the heart of the festival with talks, discussions and Q&As throughout. All films screened at the festival are in competition for UK Green Film Festival Awards, including the Palme Verte for best film and UKGFF Audience Award. Winners will be announced at the Closing Night on 8th June. “This is an exciting and diverse showcase, with great opportunities for film fans to have their say on topics ranging from climate change to the cities of the future. As film is an immersive and entertaining medium, it is the perfect vehicle for inspiring and engaging even more people to take action on the issues facing us and our planet.”

Joe Jenkins, Director of Fundraising, Communications and Activism, Friends of the Earth

“Picturehouse are delighted to be working with a festival which endeavours to bring important Green issues to as wide an audience as possible. With our commitment to local audiences and community, the festival’s diverse programme and grassroots environmentalism is a perfect fit for us.”

Clare Binns, Programming & Acquisitions Director, Picturehouse Cinemas

Screening programme

More than Honey ‐ UK Premiere (Opening night Gala feature)

Doc. Switzerland/ Germany/ Austria 2012

Dir. Markus Imhoof

Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof uses state‐of‐the‐art filmmaking to illuminate the world’s bee crisis in this compelling in‐depth look at honeybees in California, Switzerland, china and Australia. “Dazzling nature photography… more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.”

Toronto International Film Festival 2012

+ short The Lonely Dodo

UK, 4 min Dir. Matthew Walker

Starring Stephen Fry, this animation by the award winning Aardman, tells the story of the last lonesome bird from Mauritius on an adventure!

Trashed (Closing night Gala feature)

Doc. USA 2012

Dir. Candida Brady

We buy it, we bury it, we burn it and then we ignore it, but what happens to all the trash we produce? Selected for a special screening at Cannes and having scooped awards at Tokyo International Film Festival, FIFE International Environmental Film Festival to name a few, Trashed follows Jeremy Irons as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution. He also looks to the solutions out there ‐ from the innovative to the radical ‐ and how our lives can be changed to address the problem.

+ short Plastic Bag

USA, 18mins

Dir. Ramin Bahrani

A plastic bag (voiced by legendary film director Werner Herzog) goes on an epic journey in search of its lost Maker. Music by Kjartan Sveinsson of the band Sigur Rós.

Solar Taxi ‐ UK Premiere

Doc. ‐ Germany 2010

Dir. Erik Schmitt

“More than a few have embarked on an around‐the‐world adventure; and some have even completed it, but no one has ever done so powered exclusively by the sun.” Meet Louis Palmer and his homemade “Solartaxi”. Chronicling an epic 18‐month adventure that spans the globe, this green road movie is full of surprises!

+ short A Litre of Light (Festival premiere)

South Africa, 5 min, Dir. Timothy Gabb

‘Litre of Light’ means using a plastic bottle and water to illuminate an otherwise dark space. This film bears testimony to the enormous effect these simple designs have on people’s everyday lives.

Peak ‐ UK Premiere

Doc. Germany 2012

Dir. Hennes Lang

The mountains are calling! Every year thousands of tourists flock to the white winter paradise of the mountains. Set in ski resorts ‐ but not as we know them ‐ “PEAK” causes us to relive a supposedly well‐known world that has become a fascinating hybrid between nature and technology whilst asking vital questions about our longstanding need for a paradise on earth.

+ short The Man Who Lived on his Bike

Cananda, 3 mins

Dir. Guillaume Blanchet

With a whopping 8 festival wins and over 40 official selections, this non‐stop ride through the streets of Montreal where every aspect of live (from the practical to the extreme) lived on a bike, is not to be missed!

Valley of Saints

Drama ‐ Kashmir/USA 2012

Dir. Musa Syeed

When Gulzar and Afzal’s plans to skip town are derailed, they discover a young woman named Asifa researching the ecosystem of their lake community. An unlikely relationship begins too blossom between Gulzar and Asifa and Gulzar is forced to choose between a new life or a new love. Shot during the military curfew of 2010, Valley of Saints weaves together documentary and fiction, ancient myths and contemporary issues and the beauty and danger of Kashmir to tell a story finding ones path home in a changing world.

+ short A Shifting Culture

India, 3 min Dir. Jason Taylor

In this poignant and beautiful short the people of Yousef’s Kasmiri community feel they are beginning to lose their cultural identity and with it their relationship with their environment…

Future my Love

Doc. UK/Sweden 2012

Dir. Maja Borg

Filmmaker Maja Borg takes us on a poetic trip through the financial collapse, exploring a radically different economic and social model as proposed by 95‐year‐old futurist Jacque Fresco. Carefully weaving a texture of archive footage, black and white Super 8 film, and colour HD Future my Love is a unique and poignant love story that challenges our collective and personal utopias and explores the topical notion of ‘sustainable cities’ in times of radical change.

+ short Yukon Kings (UK Festival premiere)

USA, 7min Dir. Emmuanuel Vaughan‐Lee

Set in the remote Alaskan Yukon Delta, we follow Yup’ik fisherman Ray Waska. With environmental and cultural forces threatening his family’s subsistence and way of life, Ray holds onto the hope that his grandsons will one day pass on the traditional knowledge to their children.

Big Boys Gone Bananas

Doc. Sweden/ Germany/ UK/ USA/ Denmark 2012

Dir. Fredrik Gertten

In 2009 Dole Food Company waged a campaign to prevent a pair of Swedish filmmakers from screening their documentary on the evening of its world premiere at Los Angeles film festival. Three years later the director comes back with another eye‐opening documentary examining the right to freedom of speech, telling the story of can happen when filmmakers go up against a large corporations like Dole.

+ short Reynaldo (World premiere)

UK, 6 min

Dir. Dan Childs & Nick Werber

Reynaldo, lives in the Rainforest region of Manu in Peru. After many years he realised he needed to change the way he farmed to live a more sustainable life and taught himself agroforestry. By helping people to change the way they live and work he is helping build a future for people and forest alike.

“We want to show people that it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s not hopeless, there are things we can do, things we can take home, in our personal lives that can have a big, positive impact on the world we live in.”

John Long, Festival Co‐founder

www.ukgreenfilmfestival.org

www.facebook.com/UKGreenFilmFestival

Twitter: @UKGreenFilms

In the fast-paced action thriller SNITCH, Dwayne Johnson stars as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

Desperate and determined to rescue his son at all costs, he makes a deal with the U.S. attorney to work as an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel on a dangerous mission — risking everything, including his family and his own life.

Snitch is in UK Cinemas 21st June.