The best in new genre film-making from all around the world.
Here Be Dragons will be showing the newest, strangest and most exciting in new genre film-making from all around the world. Covering everything from Afrocentrism to roller derby, we embrace everything, and mix it up with quizzes, games, panels, midnight movies, free popcorn and a screening room full of bean bags. With contributors coming from the BFI, The Wotever DIY Festival, The Duke Mitchell Film Club and more, we believe we offer the most diverse programme around. New doesn't mean young, fantasy doesn't mean elves, horror doesn't mean brown notes and the future doesn't have to be Blade Runner. We also like dragons.
Thursday
Vid Long And Prosper: laid-back Star Trek fanvid fun - 8.30pm - 9.30pm
Join us for a relaxed evening's entertainment as Amy (such_heights) and Jenni present a selection of Star Trek fanvids from all corners of the franchise, from the sublime to the ridiculous(ly fun)!
Facilitated by Amy (such_heights), Jenni
Screening: I AM A KNIFE WITH LEGS (2014 Dir. Bennett Jones)
International Europop star Bené (director Bennett Jones) has problems. His girlfriend recently died in tragic ciurcumstances and now mysterious figures want him dead too. On the run from an assassin, the rockstar and his manager Beefy hide out in Los Angeles and prepare for a showdown with death. With only Beefy to keep him company, Bené passes the time by writing songs and playing with his neighbours' cat. Working with a microbudget of just $12,000, writer/producer/director/composer/editor/sound designer/star Bennett Jones made an original film based on the Bené character he created over years of standup comedy performances.
Screening: HORROR EXPRESS (1972 Dir. Eugenio Martin) - 11.45pm - late
To celebrate the great Christopher Lee's life we are showing this marvellous but underseen horror movie wherein Mr Lee plays an explorer who discovers the frozen fossil of an early humanoid that turns out to be far more alive, and far more dangerous, that anyone could have feared. Featuring Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, and some marvellously daft pseudo-science, this is both a right giggle and a genuine horror treat.
Friday
Here Be Dragons Official Competition Screenings: Experimental & 'Arthouse' Shorts - 10.00am - 11.15am
The very best new genre shorts and features, showing as part of the official Here Be Dragons competition. This session features the very best experimental or 'arthouse' shorts. 18+.
Here Be Dragons Official Competition Screenings: Science Shorts - 11.45am - 1.00pm
The very best new genre shorts and features, showing as part of the official Here Be Dragons competition. This session features the very best shorts on the theme of science. 18+.
Afrofuturism 101: a dynamic introduction to the Afrofuturism multiverse - 1.30pm - 2.45pm (with Race & Culture)
Afrofuturism is sci fi that addresses Black themes through sci-fi and futurology. With examples as varied as Sun Ra, Janelle Monae, Octavia Butler, and Brother from Another Planet, and covering film, music, literature, fashion and technoculture, Afrofuturism is truly a vast multiverse of non-Western creativity. Chardine Taylor-Stone's illustrated talk will cover the basics, including the politics and possibilities beyond the funk and mysticism.
Talk by Chardine Taylor-Stone
Don't Call Me Babe: picking apart the tropes of kick-ass female characters (with Geek Feminism) - 3.15pm - 4.30pm
From Maleficent to Black Widow, via Furiosa, Katniss Everdeen and so much more, we love badass women smashing up their enemies and enacting superheroic power moves that we can only dream of. But haven't we had enough of the male-dominated film industry bringing out action and comic book films that rarely go beyond “Look! Girls can do it too!”? This opinionated panel will tackle the tropes of kick-ass women, from compulsory catsuits to sisterhood solidarity fail, and ultimately, will figure out what a real bad ass women character could look like.
Panel with Tara Brown, Pip Janssen, Clara Jackson, and more.
Screening: BLADE (1998 Dir. Steven Norrington. Dur: 120mins ) - 5.00pm - 7.00pm
Paired with our panel on Afrofuturism, this is the 1998 Wesley Snipes movie about the day-walking vampire and a bunch of people trying to ice-skate uphill. Visually groundbreaking and full of incredible action, BLADE helped usher in a new age of superhero blockbusters, though few have matched its unique qualities since.
The Extremely Silly Movie Quiz - 9.30pm - 11.00pm
The film quiz returns with more rounds that will involve absolutely no knowledge of movies. Silliness, surprises, special guests, actual stupidity and hundreds of prizes guaranteed.
Facilitated by Andrew Clarke.
The Duke Mitchell Late Night Party - 11.00pm - late
The Duke boys are back! After last year's wonderful event, it was only fair they brought back a touch of their special brand of off-kilter genius for Nine Worlds. Expect an mind-boggling array of cinematic treasures unearthed, edited and brought alive - come and join the party that starts when everything else ends: the only late-night destination! There'll be guests, games and much, much more at this event where no-one knows just exactly what might happen.
Screenings by Evrim Ersoy, Alex Kidd
Saturday
Here Be Dragons Official Competition Screenings: Children & Childhood - 10.00am - 11.15am
The very best new genre shorts and features, showing as part of the official Here Be Dragons competition. This session features the very best shorts about Children & Childhood. 18+.
Here Be Dragons Official Competition Screenings: Horror Shorts - 11.45am - 1.00pm
The very best new genre shorts and features, showing as part of the official Here Be Dragons competition. This session features the very best Horror Shorts. 18+.
Is Horror Evil? - 1.30pm - 2.45pm
In this panel discussion, we will explore the problematic aspects of the horror genre, whether it is even possible to have a non-problematic horror movie, and, well, whether we'd want one.
Panel: Doc Oughton, Prano Bailey-Bond, Ash Farbrother
Play Board Games With The Duke Mitchell Film Club - 3.00pm - 5.00pm, Commonwealth East
Heroes of the Here Be Dragons Film Track, The Duke Mitchell Film Club, are also huge board games fans and they invite you to play board games with them on Saturday afternoon in Commonwealth East. With them will be Spencer Hickman from Deathwaltz Records - THE vinyl movie soundtrack specialist. They are going to bring some vintage games like Masterpiece & Space AD with them, along with some movie related games like The Shining or Dawn Of The Dead. They are looking forwards to playing them with you!
Shaw Sisters: The Fighting Women of Hong Kong Cinema - 5.00pm - 6.15pm
Famed for their martial arts movies, the Shaw Brothers reinvented the way the studio system worked in the far east, but not without the help of an amazing cast, often putting women on an equal, or stronger, footing than their male counterparts. Christine Ni follows the influence that the "Flowers of Shaw" had on KungFu flicks, soap opera, and an entire industry!
Talk by Christine Ni
The Duke Mitchell Film Club Presents: Sci Fi Shorts Bonanza - 6.45pm - 8.00pm
Bringing one of their legendary film nights to Nine worlds, The Duke Mitchell will surprise and delight as they bring the greatest sci-fi shorts to Nine Worlds and expand the horizons of your mind - these are the films they've discovered over the last 7 years that challenge every notion of what science fiction can be, that play with your expectations, that astound you and sometimes even make you laugh.
Screenings by Evrim Ersoy, Alex Kidd
Live Film Commentary: Mystery Horror Movie Edition - 8.30pm - 9.45pm
Continuing our horror strand, we'll be live commentary-ing a mystery Horror movie. We promise it will be delightfully gory, thoroughly awful and completely awesome. Yes, this will pretty much be MST3K. Audience participation basically compulsory.
With Andrew Clarke, Kat Iwinski, and more.
The Midnight Movie: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986 Dir. Frank Oz Dur: 94mins) - Midnight - 2.00am
Rounding off our Horror strand, we have a midnight screening of 1986's comedy-horror-musical-remake-classic Little Shop Of Horrors, starring everybody from the 80s and a huge alien flesh-eating plant called Audrey II. It's great, and the screening will include trailers specially curated by Hammered Horror's Ash Farbrother, plenty of gags and a few surprises.
Sunday
Here Be Dragons Official Competition Screenings: Comedy Shorts - 10.00am - 11.15am
The very best new genre shorts and features, showing as part of the official Here Be Dragons competition. This session features the very best comedy shorts. 18+.
Night Of The Trailers: Morning Of The Trailers - 11.45am - 1.00pm
Come and join us as we take you on a journey through some of the most obscure, funny and flat out strange film trailers you’re ever likely to see. We’ll show you some of the strangest and funniest trailer discoveries of this year, while also overloading your senses with a selection of our worst finds as well. Plus as bonus for this year we’ll also be showing you some of our Fount Footage edits that we’ve put together, culled from vintage VHS tapes you’ll enter into another world with this truly strange collection of video finds.
Screenings by Alex Kidd
Screening: IN THE TURN (2014 Dir. Erica Tremblay. Dur: 90 mins) - 1.30pm - 2.45pm
IN THE TURN is a feature length documentary about a 10-year-old transgender girl who finds acceptance and empowerment in the company of a queer roller derby league.
IN THE TURN is screening as part of our Official Competition.
Introduced by Tara Brown
Screening: WHIP IT (2009 Dir. Drew Barrymore Dur: 120m) - 3.15pm - 5.15pm
Drew Barrymore's joyous directorial debut is full of humanity, fun and head-smashing Roller Derby awesomeness. Ellen Page's disaffected teenager finds acceptance and happiness on the Austin Roller Derby scene as 'Babe Ruthless'. Much excellence happens.