We talk to Raindance Features Programmer Suzanne Ballantyne and review a selection of the cinematic delights on offer at one of Britain’s edgiest film festivals.
Feature by Virginie Sélavy, Tom Huddleston and Lindsay Tudor

Short films have always formed an important part of the Raindance Film Festival. Programmer Jamie Greco guides us through this year’s treasure trove of short treats.
Feature by Virginie Sélavy

Lisa Williams talks to Garin Nugroho, director of Opera Jawa, who tells her how he coped with the making of a film that includes no less than 60 songs, 70 dance routines and seven art installations.
Interview by Lisa Williams

Having formed and killed off more bands than anyone else in rock history (except possibly for Mark E. Smith, but then his band’s name has always remained the same), Billy Childish is back with new outfit The Musicians Of The British Empire, which features Nurse Julie on bass and Wolf Howard on drums. Their recently released debut album, ‘Punk Rock At The British Legion Hall’ takes up where the Buff Medways left off, offering more of Billy Childish’s very own brew of radical punk spirit and raw garage-blues. Here, they pick their ten favourite films.

When somebody recently told me about Giant Haystacks’ appearance in Paul McCartney’s 80s musical fondue, Give My Regards To Broad Street, I was sceptical. Surprisingly, these doubts weren’t directed at the quality of the wrestler’s performance. I didn’t get that far, my questions rested on a more fundamental point – whether he was even in the film.
Column by CJ Magnet

Following 2003’s acclaimed Tarnation, in which American filmmaker Jonathan Caouette turned the home-movies of his formative years into an introspective psychological examination of his life, a British director has now collated and edited her family’s history into an engaging tale of a bifurcated family separated by land and culture. Alex Fitch caught up with I for India director Sandhya Suri at the ICA in London and asked her about her project to turn decades of transcontinental communication between her émigré father and his family in India into her first documentary feature.
Interview by Alex Fitch

Despite having influenced a whole generation of major directors, from Takashi Miike and John Woo to Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch, Seijun Suzuki has remained a relatively unknown name in the West. While some of his followers have overused and even formulised the stylised violence, mischievous humour and fetishistic attention to detail that he introduced, Suzuki’s own films still look as alien and fresh as they did at the time they were made.
Feature by Virginie Sélavy

Le Chat Noir are girl drummer Eileen and guitarist Teddy and together they play a riotous mix of dirty bluesy garage-punk-rock. They’ve just released their second album, Deadwood, and here they tell us about their favourite films!