Sci-Fi London 2004

[coalescent]

This weekend, I went to the third SciFi London film festival with greengolux, twic, snowking and despotliz. Special guest appearances this year were by Geneva's friend Jon. And as it was last year, so it was this year: Great fun.

Friday evening saw rapid crepe consumption, Jon’s assertion that 72 hours after reading The Fifth Head of Cerberus you wake up and it all suddenly makes sense (it hasn't happened yet), and the Japanese/Korean action flick 2009: Lost Memories. In this alternate history, an assassination in 1909 never was and as a result Japan annexed Korea, fought with the US in World War II, and generally did pretty well for itself. There’s a decent backstory there, but thanks to some dubious editing choices the film never really takes off. It did make me wonder, though – why are there so few alternate history films? Fatherland aside, I can’t think of a single one, and I’m not sure why; it’s certainly got as much potential for intrigue and action as any other scifi premise Hollywood might want to steal.

I crashed Friday night at Tom’s place, notable for its multi-tone paint schemes – particularly in the bathroom, which looks not-unlike a mutant Neapolitan – then it was back into town far too early on Saturday morning to watch the program of short films. Last year, by and large, they weren’t bad; this year, by and large, they were good. I particularly enjoined the disturbing conjoined twins trauma story ‘The Separation’, Dreamworks-alike CGI animation ‘Annie & Boo’, and ‘Mobile Phone Bill’. The latter was shot as part of a 48-hour film challenge, and is a caution against the integration of mobile phones into our nervous system. Far better than the other film that they showed from the 48-hour challenge, ‘Chaingangs’; yet somehow ‘Chaingangs’ was the festival pick for best short. I can’t work it out.

As with last year, most of Saturday afternoon was spent trawling the Charing Cross road bookshops and marvelling at what we found there. Books about Chinese propaganda posters, for instance. I’m pretty proud of my restraint; I only bought two books. What’s more, I plan to read both of them (Peace by Gene Wolfe and The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem) this month. This will hopefully assuage my guilt over the fact that of the books I bought over this weekend last year, I’ve read all of two (if you’re interested, Apostrophes and Apocalypses and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom). Oops. Of course, since I took delivery of a large pile of short fiction collections from Geneva (some Annie Proulx; some Michael Faber; some Arthur Bradford; some Susan Perabo; and yet more Gene Wolfe), this plan too may fall by the wayside…I very nearly bought a Margaret Atwood collection as well, but I had a choice of two, and dithered, and was lost: The bookshop closed whilst we were in the cinema, and wasn’t open on Sunday. Bah.

The early-evening film on Saturday evening was, for me, the highlight of the festival: Greg Pak’s Robot Stories. This is a quartet of loosely linked short films, each telling a different, low-key, robot-related story; it all resembled nothing so much as a proper SF short story collection, albeit one more remarkable for the execution of the stories than for their originality. If you ever get a chance to see it (we were told it’s due a (limited?) US release, but nothing was said about its wider prospects), do so. After the film there was a short Q&A session with the director, in which amongst other things [blatant] Dave Green of NTK fame [/blatant] asked what Pak thought of AI.

One quick Chinese pitstop later (we tried but failed to find a Korean restaurant, since that seemed to be the unifying theme of the weekend) and it was time for Natural City. Well, almost. In actual fact, the film was delayed, and the cinema had a wall hung with paper for us to draw on, so it turned out that it was actually time for the Geekstalt to create a special edition of Fanboys! complete with director's commentary - if Tom gets organised, it may even appear online at some point. The film itself was sold by the blurb as the Korean Blade Runner, told with the aesthetic of Minority Report, and that’s more-or-less accurate; it’s hampered by a hugely overlong final confrontation, but for the most part it’s a nicely-done action film. With cyborgs! It’s also frequently spectacular, and to be honest worth seeing for the visuals alone, although I was disappointed to discover that it wasn't actually set on a paradise planet with zeppelins. I said above that there aren't enough alternate history films; well, there aren't enough films set on alien worlds, either. At least, not on ones that don't harbour vicious inhabitants that desire only to rend you limb from limb.

And, aside from a slight hiccup on the way back to Andrew’s on Saturday night, in which it was discovered that the night bus no longer goes where we needed it to go, that was pretty much that. Cheers, guys; I had a good time. And next weekend, Picocon!

Elsewhere, this year's Arthur C Clarke and BSFA award shortlists have been announced and are discussed in instant_fanzine, here; those of you working in bookshops should arrange displays immediately! Interview meme answers will hopefully appear tomorrow. And if you have a desperate urge to know what I've been reading and watching this month, you can look here.

Comments

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

I'll try and ensure that they're on the SF table (although Pattern Recognition seems to be difficult to get hold of at the moment...) but I doubt we'll have the space for an actual display :o)

I've not heard much about Maul - it's blessed with a rather unfortunate cover...

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[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I'll try and ensure that they're on the SF table

Good man. :)

(although Pattern Recognition seems to be difficult to get hold of at the moment...)

I wouldn't be surprised if several of them are - for most of the nominees the list seems to come out at that awkward time when the hardback is all but gone and the paperback is a few months away...

but I doubt we'll have the space for an actual display :o)

I am resisting the urge to say 'there never was much hope. Just a fool's hope.'

I've not heard much about Maul - it's blessed with a rather unfortunate cover...

And yet, the cover is nominated for best artwork! Madness. I haven't heard much about it either; it's sort-of lodged in my brain as 'got good reviews, but not really my thing.' That may or may not be wildly inaccurate.

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[mattia.livejournal.com]

Re: Maul.

Was looking at it at airport a while back. Don't remember much other than I didn't really think terribly much of it (I think I read a chapter..) Didn't grab me.

[nuttyxander.livejournal.com]

Did a full on check on the availability of them all at work, of them, Pattern Recognition is only in print in america, and has only been in print as recently as October over here... top tips for SF authors, don't go with the big publishers...

Maul, I have one colleague who rather loved it and another who really rather hated it. It sounds like the kind of thing I'll probably skip reading to be honest, and that's going from both the reccomendation and the slating.

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[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I think what I'm going to do is try to get Pattern Recognition and the Jones (the whole trilogy) read between now and Eastercon; then, depending on what I hear there and what the result of the BSFA award is, I may or may not pick up Maul and Darwin's Radio.

Alt histories...

[applez.livejournal.com]

It did make me wonder, though – why are there so few alternate history films? Fatherland aside, I can’t think of a single one, and I’m not sure why; it’s certainly got as much potential for intrigue and action as any other scifi premise Hollywood might want to steal.

Actually, as far as Nazisim is concerned, there seems to be plenty of alternate history, or at least 'what if' projections offered up under different packaging by the likes of the History Channel.

On the other hand, finding actual alternate WW2 history fiction set in Asia, written by Asians, I think is relatively rare - largely because that history is still felt very strongly by survivours and their progeny.

That having been said, there seems to be plenty of nationalist-themed fantasies out of Japan, though few can be characterised as pure alternate histories - more historical dramas, or historical icons in Spaaace (e.g. Battleship Yamato).

I think there's a general 'silent consensus' in Asia that this particular past is best left undisturbed...instead reaching to older histories (samurai, early emperors, legends), or to future imaginings.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm glad you "particularly enjoined" 'The Separation'. Which, i should say for the benefit of your readers, has more to do with David Cronenberg than Chris Priest (hey, if you hit an extra key, that comes out 'Christ Priest').

Also for the benefit of those readers who can't quite make out the details of the picture, it's a baby in a space-suit with an old-fashioned camera slung round its neck accepting bunch of flowers from a rabbit in a dress. There are spacecraft crewed by further babies and animals in the background.

I would also like to point out that the colour scheme in my flat is not my fault.

-- Tom

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[coalescent.livejournal.com]

has more to do with David Cronenberg than Chris Priest

I thought it would be more fun to let people discover that for themselves...

I would also like to point out that the colour scheme in my flat is not my fault.

Oops. I meant to say that.

Did your photos of the Fanboys strip come out?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. I haven't got round to posting them anywhere yet; also they are huge, and so people will need to download them before my quota kills them and reformat them or whatever. I'm afraid i don't really have the software to do that properly.

-- Tom

[(Anonymous)]

they are huge

Which of course means they have huge guts.

-- Tom