Sci-Fi London; and visiting the BFI

And so, over a month later, I finally manage to finish off the rest of my London summary. What else did I do besides attend the Nightmare USA event?

Well for one thing, the Sci-Fi London film festival also happened to be on that weekend, so I guess I might be in danger of losing my geek status if I didn't at least attend something at this festival.

So on Sunday afternoon I took in a double bill of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT and QUATERMASS 2, two classic British sci-fi movies based on the legendary Nigel Kneale BBC shows.

On the one hand, they don't really offer anything different to the countless American B-movies of the 40s and 50s, but I just get a kick out of seeing the Brits do it just as well - you know, back in the day when we could make movies that just about competed with the Americans at their own game.

Both films have dated as much as you'd expect them to, but at the same time there's an undeniable charm about them. Even if people are being killed by aliens, it all seems so quaint and innocent you can't help but love them. It's the kind of attraction that only old black and white sci-fi movies seem to possess.

That night I attended a screening of 28 WEEKS LATER, the US-made sequel to the hit British sci-fi horror 28 DAYS LATER. The screening was a few days in advance of its premiere, so maybe my writing about it here would have been quite interesting were it not for the fact that I've taken so long to get round to it that the film has been and gone from cinemas in that time.

Still, I should say at least that despite some outlandish contrivances to rival Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS rehash, it was a lot of fun. The film may not have been shot on video this time, as Danny Boyle's original was, but it does its best to recapture the mood with the same theme music and a hyperactive visual approach that isn't a million miles away from the energetic action of the original.

It should also be said that the scenes of deserted or overrun London were very well realised (albeit not matched by a knowledge of London geography, causing my London-based co-viewers to laugh out loud at some of it). That said, the most bizarre thing about watching this film was that I was watching it in London. Many of the deserted streets I was watching on the screen I'd actually walked through on my way to the cinema. Weird feeling.

That was all I managed at Sci-Fi London, but I still managed to squeeze in more films courtesy of the British Film Institute.

ROVING MARS 2D was a gripping look at man's attempts to study the red planet; ROAR: LIONS OF THE KALAHARI was a 3-D movie that observes the life and tribulations of a pack of lions living in the middle of an African desert plain; both were seen and enjoyed by me on a trip to the BFI's IMAX cinema.

Also at the BFI, I checked out the new Mediatheque facility, a development that must surely mark a major step forward in the quest to make the archive available to all.

The Mediatheque, for those who don't know, is a new facility at the new-look BFI that contains several monitors with access to an ever-increasing sample of material from the BFI's archive, with new material (often in themed packages) being added every month. And it's free.

The system is not without problems - evidently it's still being broken in and is experiencing some technical difficulties - but it's a treasure trove for experts and casual viewers alike. I watched THE FUGITIVE FUTURIST, a short silent film from the early days of cinema that used trick photography to show what London might look like in the future; I also watched an old BBC documentary about the slave trade.

Britain has such a wealth of quality TV in its archive - from the days before 99% of TV became unwatchable tosh aimed at idiots - and this is a fantastic way to introduce new viewers to it; to remind them what TV is capable of and that there is more to this medium than people sitting in a room insulting each other and being humiliated while viewers phone in to vote on stuff. In fact, aside from grabbing new viewers, it's also a great way to catch that programme you remember that you really want to see again but hasn't ever been repeated or released on video or DVD. For example, you can dip into the archives of the BBC's critically acclaimed PLAY FOR TODAY slot; or check out Paul Greengrass's stunning BLOODY SUNDAY, a film that is now out of print on UK DVD. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

In addition to the IMAX and the Mediatheque (not to mention a little trip to the BFI shop) I did manage to squeeze in one screening at the BFI's National Film Theatre.

That screening was DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. I confess I've never seen this three-hour epic, but if you're going to see it for the first time, it should really be in the cinema. It's a love story on an epic scale, with every aspect of production carved in perfect detail. The cast are all stellar, but particularly Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. Then again, if the film had been utter garbage, I'd still have been happy to watch Julie Christie for three hours. But I do think she's a great actress all the same.

So now I guess I need to go back to writing about regular cinema and home viewing, as that's all my recent festival shenanigans over and done with until August, when the annual fun and frolics of the Edinburgh festivals kick off.

Who knows, maybe I'll even manage to write more than one blog entry one week as well.