Wildscreen 2018: Day Two

The public screening programme of this year’s Wildscreen Festival continues today at three venues – the Arnolfini, Watershed and the festival’s own hub in Millennium Square. Tickets are £5 (£3.50 concessions) across all venues. Scroll down for today’s full programme and go here to book.

H is for Hawk + Q&A
17:00 – 18:20
Watershed

Following the success of Helen Macdonald’s bestselling novel of the same name, H is for Hawk: A New Chapter is an intimate and personal journey. After the loss of her father Helen trained the hardest bird in falconry, a goshawk. The cathartic experience helped her to grieve and now she is ready to do it again, but this time she hopes it will be her wings to somewhere new. In this beautiful and moving film, Helen trains a new bird and follows a wild goshawk family at the nest, getting closer than ever before to these fiery eyed birds of prey.

RED APE: Saving the Orangutan + Q&A
18:30 – 19:50
Arnolfini

For the last decade, a team of frontline medics has been fighting to save Borneo’s critically endangered orangutans. This is both the story of their life-saving work and of how one of our closest wild relatives has been pushed to the brink of extinction.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Founder of Offspring Films, Alex Williamson

Breakthrough Talent
18:30 – 20:20
Wildscreen Festival Hub, Millennium Square

Productions from the best up-and-coming filmmakers, whose stories range from seeking the elusive spider tailed viper to a stunning portrait of our urban environment.

Blood Island
12 mins
Deep in the heart of Liberia’s jungles, hundreds of chimpanzees were taken from the wild. Captured, bred, and infected with hepatitis, our closest animal relatives were to unlock the mysteries of human diseases. But what started in the 1970s as an ambitious medical experiment took deeper and darker turns through the decades. Gripping to the core, Blood Island tells the powerful story of the chimpanzees, their captors and the man still fighting to save them.

Landscape of Consumption
12 mins
The last half-century of exponential population growth combined with consumer-capitalism has vastly transformed the topography of our small green planet. The Landscape of Consumption depicts, through dramatic time-lapse photography, these manufactured environments and their perpetual processes of consumption. Via endless cityscapes and cathedral-like shopping malls, the film takes us on a mesmeric journey through our modern, almost dystopian, reality. Overall, 200,000 still images were created across 3 continents in 20 days to form this 10-minute short.

In the Realm of the Spider-tailed Viper
52 mins
In the Realm of the Spider-tailed Viper reveals the discovery of a rare and unique snake called the Spider-Tailed Horned Viper and the amazing man who made it happen. On the journey to discover this snake, the production team met up with a farmer named Mahmoud, and sought his help to find the rare viper. During the making of this documentary, some strange things happened, and the destiny of Mahmoud changed!

Wild Ireland: Edge of the World + Q&A
18:50 – 10:10
Watershed

A unique personal journey along one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world featuring the wildlife and wild places that make it so special.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, John Murray.

Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees + Q&A
20:20 – 21:40
Arnolfini

Oscar winning actress Judi Dench embarks on a magical journey to uncover the mysteries about one of her greatest passions – trees. This film follows Judi’s journey through the seasons, and her mission to understand trees vital roles in our history and our future.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Creative Director, Anthony Geffen

Queen Without Land + Q&A
21:00 – 22:30
Wildscreen Festival Hub, Millennium Square

The true story of the meeting between Frost, a beautiful polar bear mother, and Asgeir Helgestad, a Norwegian wildlife filmmaker. Rising temperatures are responsible for dramatic changes in Frost’s ecosystem as the ice is melting at record speed. This film explores the question “this planet is home to all of us, can we afford to ignore it?”

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Asgeir Halgestad.

Rodents of Unusual Size
22:10 – 23:45
Arnolfini

Hard headed Louisiana fisherman Thomas Gonzales doesn’t know what will hit him next. After decades of hurricanes and oil spills he faces a new threat – hordes of monstrous 20 pound swamp rats. It is man vs. rodent. May the best mammal win.