September is film month

The Jersey Film Society launches its new season of 17 films at the Jersey Arts Centre on Monday 13 September in what promises to be a strong and varied programme.  I'm particularly looking forward to A Single Man (described as 'a ghost story, a study of grief, a love story viewed from its wake'); Bright Star (Jane Campion's take on poet John Keats); Nowhere Boy (Sam Taylor-Wood on John Lennon) and Duncan Jones' Moon, which I never did get to see at last year's Branchage...

...speaking of which, the third Branchage International Film Festival, 23 - 26 September, again offers eclectic delights in unusual locations - from Battleship Potemkin in a tugboat and Lourdes in the Town Church to Horses in a horse box...Out On His Own with Jersey resident Gilbert O'Sullivan should be interesting, also new British comedy Tamara Drewe, post 7/7 drama London River, and Tilda Swinton in I am Love as well as many others, including shorts - and after all, I think that to get the best out of festivals, you have to immerse yourself for a few intense days and be open to new work that you might not otherwise have seen.

Despite, or perhaps because of, being an island with only one remaining cinema open, Jersey festival organisers and venue managers are admirably creative - as well as the above, recently there have been al fresco films in Howard Davis Park and silent cinema in Caféjac and November will bring the 6th Jersey Amnesty International Human Rights Festival to Jersey Arts Centre - bound to be thought-provoking and powerful.