Film

Leeds Film Festival

The film festival came around this year, while I couldn't afford the main ticket to see everything, i did get to go to some events and see what i wanted to see. Out of all the film, I really wanted to watch the cult classic, They Live, as its a film I've been meaning to see for a long time. It follows the main character, Nada, who is a wanderer who stables across a pair of sunglasses that show him what the world truly is. He quickly discovers that both the media and the government are comprised of submissive subliminal messages that are designed to keep the population subdued by the social elite (who are a race of skull faced aliens). The screening of this film was part of the mini John Carpenter retrospective and as a tribute to Roddy Piper, who sadly died earlier this year. Its a film that, for me, has a big impact on graphic design as it shows the power it has over the public with the film's satirical look at the excesses of consumerism and the control of the rich and powerful over the poor through television and advertising. 

(they live movie)

After the film was over, the was a specially recorded interview with John Carpenter regarding one of my favourite horror films, The Thing. Unfortunately I missed the interview but once it had finished, they screens Johns horror masterpiece for the audience. After speaking to some of the people running the screening, they mentioned that people where asked to submit questions for the interview and the chosen questions would receive a poster print from The Hero Initiative that was signed by John Carpenter himself. Safe to say I was gutted that I didn't find out sooner as the poster its self looked great and would have been amazing signed, but hey, you win some you loose some.