For the first time we are leaving these shores. In the past the festival has screened a few shorts at other film festivals and we did a tour of the UK a few years ago, but in 2010 we are taking the festival around the world... shorts, features and workshops.

We present a mini version of SCI-FI-LONDON in Mumbai and Ahmedabad during January 2010. We are working in collaboration with our local partners, NDTV LUMIÈRE and TECHFEST. We must also thank the British Council for making this happen.

India is not known for its sci-fi film output, most of the movies produced have been leaning more toward fantasy. We hope this will change in the future and look forward to screening some Indian sci-fi at SCI-FI-LONDON.

For full information on our event read on:

 

Workshops

WHERE DO I FIND THE SCIENCE IN FICTION?

This is a practical workshop in writing science fiction screenplays from real science news.

Using journals like NATURE, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, WIRED, and the science and technology sections of newspapers, we get you thinking about how to take real science news and use them as a base for creating compelling science fiction drama. We also look at how our local area and situations can be great backdrops to cost-effective screenplay development. Over the period of the workshop you will be reading news items and starting to sketch out movie ideas and by the end we hope to have some strong outlines for a sci-fi film(s)!

Bring a notepad and your imagination.
Duration: 3 hours.

Saturday 23 January 2010
2.00 - 5.00 pm                   TechFest, IIT Campus, POWAI, Mumbai.

Sunday 24 January 2010
4.00 - 8.00 pm                  Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Usman Pura, Ahmedabad.

IMAGINING ECOTOPIA

Jobeda Ali leads a short workshop on positive futures.

In December 2009, The Road to Ecotopia bought together 150 sustainability experts together to design a positive future society – we’ll share some example sof the projects they are embarked upon and discuss:

Why is it so hard to imagine Ecotopia?

WHAT IS UTOPIA and why is it less conducive to story-telling than dystopias?

We will watch 4 short films:

• Tuvalu – islands going under water
• Tibet – running out of fresh water
• Cheat Neutral – offsetting problems
• IDEO – Harmony City

We will then discuss:

1. PRESENT: What are the stories that inspire so many of our apocalyptic sci-fi stories of today? Is the west already living in a Utopia?

2. FUTURE: What does the future look like? Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? The power of visualisation (positive and negative visions) through news, film, books and advertising.

3. PATHWAYS: What should we do? How do we get positive stories out? Stories are about relationships and conflicts. What is the paradigm about our relationship to the state and can we achieve Utopia where the state is not our enemy?

We hope each workshop participant will go away with some creative actions they can take to proliferate positive stories about the future – if they wish!

Duration: 60 mins

Monday 25 January 2010
2.00 - 5.00 pm                  National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad .

 

FILMS

As part of the touring festival we present 2 feature films and a selection of short films.

THE AGE OF STUPID

(2009, UK, Dir: Franny Armstrong, English)

Starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, watching footage of seven real documentary people from the present day and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Directed by MCLIBEL'S Franny Armstrong, this Guinness World Record-beating, box-office No 1, multi-award-winning climate blockbuster became the most talked about film of 2009.

It also inspired the crowd-funding financing model, the Indie Screenings distribution system and the 10:10 climate campaign

Trailer and full details here: http://www.ageofstupid.net/

Friday 22 January 2010
10.00 – 11.30 pm               TechFest, IIT Campus, POWAI, Mumbai.

Sunday 24 January 2010
8.30 - 10.30 pm                  Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Usman Pura, Ahmedabad.

 

EXITZ

(2007, UK/INDIA, Dir: Laurens Postma, English)

Written by Farrukh Dhondy (Mangal Pandey: The Rising), Exitz tells the tale of Percy, a global computer games tycoon creates a strange new game where reality is the game and real people become its pawns.

He becomes hooked on the game and his scheming employees take advantage of his obsessive immersion to launch a coup and a thrilling tale of deceit, manipulation and murder unfolds. Malcolm McDowell leads the cast in EXITZ, a multi-layered thriller about love, deceit, illusions and virtual reality.

EXITZ threads together the glamorous world of beauty pageants and millionaire mansions with the harsher side of London's immigrant community and illegal work force. Stars: Malcolm McDowell (CLOCKWORK ORANGE, IF, STAR TREK), and Perizaad Zorabian (JOGGER'S PARK, MUMBAI MATINEE, MORNING RAAGA). It also features Beth Winslet (STILETTO)

Trailer can be seen here http://www.sci-fi-london.com/2007web/moviepages/exitz.html (We had the world premiere of the film back in 2005)

NOTE: We are delighted to have the movie's Director, Laurens Postma, attend the screening and we will have a Q&A session about the film

Saturday 23 January 2010
10.00 - 11.30 pm                   TechFest, IIT Campus, POWAI, Mumbai.

Monday 25 January 2010
8.30 - 10.30 pm                  National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad

STINGRAY SAM

(2009, USA, Dir: Cory McAbee, English)

Stingray Sam is a lounge singer created by that master of cosmic gun slinging, Cory McAbee, creator and star of the amazing American Astronaut (SFL1).

A dangerous mission reunites Stingray Sam with his long lost accomplice, The Quasar Kid. We follow these two space convicts as they earn their freedom in exchange for the rescue of a young girl held captive by the genetically designed figurehead of a very wealthy planet.

"This is a musical space western. It's cool. It's committed to its style. It's self-aware without being selfabsorbed. It's a film you want to bring your new love interest to, because it'll show him or her that you feel comfortable having your postmodernism smothered in hilariousness. It'll prove to this new love in your life that not only can the avant-garde disturb filmic conventions, but also be kindhearted and sweet, subversive yet caring and generous. This is not, however, some Ice Storm or Squid and the Whale coming-of-age whinery, no, this is the wild galactic frickin' West. Bring your gun. Bring your dancin' boots." (courtesy of Quiet Earth.us)

This was a huge hit at Sundance and is unique in that it was designed to be watched on everything from a mobile phone to a cinema screen - we've opted for the latter. Music is by Cory's hard-rocking American Astronaut band. Don't miss out on being part of the vanguard of this movie phenomenon.

Saturday 23 January 2010
8.30 - 10.30 pm                  TIFR, Powai, Mumbai

 

THE BEST OF SCI-FI-LONDON SHORT FILM PROGRAMME

We present a collection of shorts films from the last 7 years of the festival.

The films featured are: (NOTE - PROGRAMME IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

1. UNPOSSIBLE (2008, 3.5mins, UK, Dir: Robin King)
A paranoid inventor will go to any length to protect his new time machine.

2. GOD SPEED WAYNE HARLOW (2008, 1.5min, UK, Dir: David Ellinor)
An Englishman decides to fund his own space program in a vain attempt to launch a slug into space. If the slug doesn't do it for Britain - who will?

3. TRIPLE WORD (2009, 7min, UK, Dir: Paul Allen & Jamie Boulton)
One room, three friends a guitar and a scrabble board. A two year journey suddenly feels like a horribly long time.

4. TRANQUILITY (2009, 10min, UK, Dir: Paul Jenkinson)
A man troubled by his past, afraid of his future, searches for Tranquility

5. THE DAY THE ROBOTS WOKE UP (2009, 7mins, UK, Dir: Ed Hartwell)
In the 1950s a comet hit London causing all technology to stop. Today the robots have woken up!

6. EEL GIRL (2009, 5mins, UK, Dir: Paul Campion)
In a secure navy research facility, a beautiful halfhuman half-eel girl takes a terrible revenge on the obsessed scientist who is studying her.

7. MOONSHOT UK (2008, 1.5mins, UK, Dir: James Harris)
The first English moon landing goes a bit skew-whiff.

8. LA VIE D'UN CHIEN (2004, 13mins, USA, Dir: John Harden)
A scientist invents a serum that changes him into a dog. Transformed he spends his time running through Parisian streets.

9. X (2003, 5mins, Germany, Dir: Raphael Wahl)
Inspired by Stanislav Lem's short stories about the spaceman Ijon Tichy, this film tells of a comical space travel adventure

10. RESISTANZ (2002, 10mins, Italy, Dir: Maxi Dejoie)
The soldier fights the invader. One of the pitiless people with nothing more too loose, he sits with his sniper rifle hoping to save something of his ravaged world.

11. THE STORY OF SPUTNIK (2008, 6mins, USA, Dir: John Harden)
A brief history of the first artificial satellite

12. THE UN-GONE (2006, 8.5mins, UK, Dir: Simon Bovey)
Step into a matter transporter in one time zone, arrive seconds later in another. Simple! But when the system malfunctions we discover the dark truth behind the corporate facade.

Thursday 21 January 2010 (including The Pauper's Guide to Science Fiction Filmmaking)
5.30pm - 7.30pm                  Whistling Woods Institute, Filmcity Complex, Mumbai

Monday 25 January 2010
8.30 - 10.30 pm                  Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Usman Pura, Ahmedabad.

Monday 25 January 2010
5.30 - 7.30 pm                   National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad