ShAFF - Sheffield Adventure Film Festival 2008: Feb 29th - March 2nd

Hi everyone. Coming up at the end of this month is yet another Sheffield film festival, hot on the heels of one of the most successful international doc/fests in the world, the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival.

This film fest is adventure films though, and it's going to be good. Now in its 3rd year, the festival aims to bring together the best of the films from this year's festivals. Some of the films are being premiered at ShAFF, some are already available on DVD. The point is though, to watch them on a big silver screen and in between films have a laugh (or as I call it, "network") in the bar of The Showroom, Sheffield's leading indy cinema which also plays host to Sheff doc/fest.

The films have been cleverly organised into different sections so that you can watch several films in similar genres back to back on one ticket, in categories such as "Inspiring Women" (a subject after my own heart, being one myself, wink), "Culture & Adventure 1" and "Adrenaline Junkies 2".

Besides the climbing, mountaineering, kayaking, skiiing, snowboarding, surfing, trekking, mountain biking and environmental films are also gems such as the following:

Journey To The Edge - World Premiere

Adventure / Snowboarding - 45 mins

Part one of a flagship 6 part series commissioned by new channel Virgin One. In a thrilling global journey, Leo Houlding and five people seeking to change their lives by trying out some of the world's toughest tribal rites of passage, taking in some adrenaline thrills along the way.

Part of Adrenaline Junkies 2

9:00pm - Sat 1st Mar - Showroom Screen 2
7:00pm - Sun 2nd Mar - Showroom Screen 1

Anything with Leo in it is worth watching, he's not only one of the world's top climbers, he's also one of the loveliest (and coolest, if being cool is still cool nowadays) blokes I've ever met. If you missed Leo and Tim Emmett on British car programme Top Gear, then check it out below. They're speed climbing a route in the Verdon Gorge in the South of France whilst sweet and cuddly Jeremy Clarkson races them up one of the most treacherous roads in Europe in an Audi RS4.

Jezza: "I will not be beaten by two adrenaline junkies who call each other dude."

(cue Jeremy Clarkson drumroll voice...) But he is.

Then Leo base jumps off the top of the top of the Verdon Gorge and lands at the bottom chuckling, "Ha ha! Twelve hundred feet in twenty seconds! Beat that, Clarkson!"

Pure class.

The very best Top Gear ever imo including the one with the Bowler Wildcat (my dream car.)

Below: Leo and Tim at the Verdon Gorge on Top Gear:

Below: Whilst we're on the subject, the Bowler Wildcat on Top Gear:

Back to ShaFF (you're getting the idea now, right?)

20 Seconds of Joy

BASE Jumping / Adventure / Air Sports - 60 mins

I don't want to die, I want to live. I'm pretty good at running away, and this is my escape. Documentary filmmaker Jens Hoffman accompanies Norwegian BASE jumper Karina Hollekim over a period of years until things come to a sudden stop and her life is forever changed.

Awards
Best Film on Mountain Sport - Banff 2007 People's Choice - Banff 2007

Part of Inspiring Women
11:00am - Sat 1st Mar - Showroom Screen 1
11:00am - Sun 2nd Mar - Showroom Screen 1

Part of Best Of Banff 1
5:00pm - Sat 1st Mar - Showroom Screen 2

Urban Freestyler - Free Running - World Premiere

Parkour / Free-running - 5 mins

Urban free running on the streets of London with Ryan Doyle

Part of Adrenaline Junkies 1
9:00pm - Fri 29th Feb - Showroom Screen 2
7:00pm - Sat 1st Mar - Showroom Screen 1

Inner Balance

Unicycling - 5 mins

Inner Balance features some of the top unicycle riders from Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia. They take unicycling to the next level with amazing drops and trials riding in a massive indoor bike park. You won’t believe what’s possible on a unicycle.

Part of Best Of Banff 1
5:00pm - Sat 1st Mar - Showroom Screen 2

Climber

Climbing - 2 mins

An alpinist is climbing a difficult mountain, the D'naurco, and every step is getting heavier and every breath is getting thinner. He will have to face his fears before he can face the mountain.

Awards
2nd place BC Student Film Festival in Vancouver in 2006

Part of Culture & Adventure 1
9:00pm - Fri 29th Feb - Showroom Screen 1
3:00pm - Sat 1st Mar - Showroom Screen 1

Besides the films, on 1st March, writer and photographer Gordon Stainforth will be interviewing author and mountaineer Joe Simpson (who wrote the international best-seller Touching The Void.) This proves to be an interesting combination. I know both of them, and they're both highly intelligent, polished professionals... yet curmudgeonly in the extreme. Bring it on, boys.

The full listing of films is here.

***

Coming up as soon as I get a whole day off to write it: Backstage with the inimitable Gavin Clark on the UNKLE tour.

© Jude Calvert-Toulmin.

The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson

Many of you will have heard of Sheffield author Joe Simpson. His book Touching The Void, about his and Simon Yates' first ascent of Siula Grande in the Andes, and what transpired during the descent, an experience Joe calls "an incredible mountaineering cock-up", has sold more than one and half million copies and been translated into 20 languages.

The classy but unofficial promotional poster for Touching The Void. Photograph of Joe on the 1st ascent of the West Face, Siula Grande, 1985 by Simon Yates.

The docu-drama of Touching The Void, produced by Darlow-Smithson productions, has become the most recognised theatrical documentary film of all time, winning more than 25 international awards.

Earlier this year, Joe went to the Eiger to film another Darlow-Smithson docu-drama, this time of his book The Beckoning Silence, which tells of the tragic attempt on the north face of the Eiger in 1936 by a team of German climbers. Their story was first told in Heinrich Harrer's seminal work in the history of mountaineering literature, The White Spider, and it was reading about Toni Kurz's horrific death whilst suspended on the end of a rope that first inspired Joe to climb.

Fritz Kasparek and author/mountaineer Heinrich Harrer during the first successful ascent of the north face of the Eiger in 1938

The irony of this, considering Joe's fate on Siula Grande, is something that has clearly left a deep impression on Joe, as he describes in both his book, and the film The Beckoning Silence, which was premiered last night on Channel 4.

Like Touching The Void it's a really beautiful docco with some stunning camerawork, spot on editing, understated and highly competent directing, tight narrative structure and with some great acting from the climbers reconstructing the summit attempt. And Joe is at his absolute best talking to camera with heartfelt emotion about Toni Kurz's struggle for survival.

The Beckoning Silence will be screened at The Kendal Mountain Film Festival on the morning of Saturday 17th November, after which Joe, along with director Louise Osmond, producer John Smithson, cameraman Keith Partridge and logistic manager Brian Hall, will be present for an audience Q & A.

During location shooting at the Eiger back in April, Joe wrote a diary which you can read on his official site. It's well worth a read, typically curmudgeonly, self-deprecating and sensitive all at the same time.

Above: Joe at the Kendal Film Festival, by Susanna Howe

Joe Simpson is someone who has my deepest respect. When I first read The Beckoning Silence it had a deep impact on me; I have never had a love affair with climbing, merely a tentative dalliance, but Joe's description of climbers and climbing strikes deep chords of emotion in anyone with a heart. He is a terrific writer and wonderful person, unspoilt by success. Joe's full catalogue of work in print is here.

Above: Joe shooting "A Final Chance to Save - Gorillas" written and directed by Amelia Hann.

And if you get a chance to see the Tiger Aspect Productions docco he shot on location in the Congo last year as part of the Final Chance to Save series, about the desperate plight of the gorillas in the region, then take that chance, because it's a heartwarming documentary brilliantly presented by Joe with the same degree of self-deprecating panache and humour as the legendary Sheffield writer and broacaster, Michael Palin.

Above: Joe rock climbing.

Further reading:

Profile of Joe in The Independent

Article entitled "Stay off North Face of the Eiger, climbers warned - it's melting" from The Telegraph

BBC article "Eiger's grim reputation."

No Ordinary Joe official site with up to date news and an active, friendly forum.

Above: Joe Simpson.



***

© Jude Calvert-Toulmin.

My photograph gallery at deviantART

"My Time on The Turn of The 80s Music Scene" articles

Runaway Girl Wins Best Bar Food at Sheff Bar & Club Awards

Winners of the Best Bar Food, L to R: Sous Chef Jonil Xhaja and Head Chef Richie Russell.

I'm sure that everyone reading this will at some point in their lives dined out at a restaurant, so we all know what that's like.

Ever worked a restaurant kitchen? Know what that's like? Well I have, and I can tell you it's fookin hard work and total fruit loops barely controlled mayhem. Talk about focus and concentration; it makes being a writer of best selling literary fiction (me...apart from the best selling bit...or even published bit) look like a piece of piss.

Being a chef is also very sexy and totally Rock 'n' Roll, as a few of us have known for yonks, long before all the tele chefs came along, way back in the 80s when tales of Marco Pierre White's antics filtered through the elite strands of London's clubland and us gals drooled at the prospect of being whisked up to his office for a quick game of hide the salami. Why I never went to Harveys in the 80s I'll never know (probably because I was always skint) as it was only round the corner from me in sarf London at the time.

Where were we? Oh yes, extolling the virtues of chefs. Well, the other week, my partner Brian and I dined at Runaway Girl for the first time, and I can honestly say that the food we had was right up there with the best I've ever eaten out in Sheffield. We had a selection of tapas, and it was all done to perfection. The pan fried duck in mushrooms and a tangy red wine sauce was absolutely divine. Working out exactly how Chef Russell has achieved this has been driving me bonkers, because it's not a sauce buerre rouge, I suspect it's a basic veloute, but it was very rich and totally melted on the tongue.

Well, maybe I'll manage to charm the secret out of him, for yesterday I went along to the Runaway Girl for a photo session with the chefs, after Runaway Girl won Best Bar Food at last week's innaugral 2007 Sheffield Bar and Club Awards.

Here's Chef Russell carving the Jamón Serrano.

And again. Well 'ard.

Not the meat. I mean, the rufty tufty carving action. I tasted the meat and it was as tender and succulent as I remember it from my years in Spain.

And here are the chefs messing around after another gruelling service.

That Wanted poster isn't real, silly. It's just me messing around. If you click on the pic you can see a big version. Note the price on his head and his come hither "Nuts" pose. Chefs are just wonderful, aren't they? :)

Here's Runaway Girl's owner, Justin Rowntree, pretending to be a sound engineer.

The real sound engineer, Scraga (aka Neil.)


Congratulations to all at Runaway Girl for this award. It is very well deserved.

Regarding Marco Pierre White, you can buy his autobiography "Devil in the Kitchen" here. Bearing in mind that it's ghost written, so it ain't no David Niven "The Moon's A Balloon", it is still a fabulously entertaining book, and I still maintain having read it that Marco is a decent guy.

And here's Marco Pierre White's flashtastic Country Inns site which I regularly visit in my tea break because it's such a beautifully designed piece of classic Flash kitsch.

To finish off, here's my favourite quote from one of my favourite movies, This is Spinal Tap.

True Rock 'n' Roll chefs, like Marco and Richie Russell, go up to eleven.


Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

***

© Jude Calvert-Toulmin.

My photograph gallery at deviantART

"My Time on The Turn of The 80s Music Scene" articles

***

Runaway Girl Menu:

Food Served

12.00 pm – 2.00 pm Monday to Friday

5.00 pm – 9.00 pm Monday to Friday

6.00 pm – 9.00 pm Saturday

Lunchtime & Early Evening Offer

· Available 12.00 pm – 2.00 pm and 5.00 pm – 7.00 pm Monday to Friday

· 2 of any of the selected tapas (see all marked*) + a soft drink for just £5.00

· 3 of any of the selected tapas (see all marked*) + soft drink, £7.00

· And for just £1.00 you can replace the soft drink with a selected beer or a small glass of wine!

The Runaway Girl Menu

Grilled Rabbit -This classic and simple Spanish dish served with our own aioli is a must! £4.50

Lamb with Red Pepper & Olive Paté - thinly sliced marinated leg of lamb, flash grilled and topped with our own fresh tapenade £4.65

Pan Fried Duck with mushrooms in a tangy red wine sauce £4.55

Black Pudding, Broad Beans and Chorizo – pan fried with onions £4.35

Meatballs – Chefs own recipe; in a rich tomato frito sauce £4.25 *

Fillet Grills – Marinated fillet of beef, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread £3.95

Fillet Grills with Jamon – Marinated fillet of beef, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread with Spanish cured ham £4.35

Fillet Grills with Chorizo – Marinated fillet of beef, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread + Chorizo £4.35

Fillet Grills with Smoked Cheese – Marinated fillet of beef, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread Spanish Idiazábal cheese £4.35

Chicken Grills - Marinated chicken breast, flash-grilled on toasted Tuscan bread £3.75 *

Chicken Grills with Jamon - Marinated chicken breast, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread with Spanish cured ham £4.15

Chicken Grills + Chorizo - Marinated chicken breast, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread + Chorizo £4.15

Chicken Grills with Smoked Cheese- Marinated chicken breast, flash-grilled served on toasted Tuscan bread with grated Spanish Idiazábal cheese £4.15

Chorizo, Manchego Cheese and Herbed Tomato Grills £4.10

Pork Steak – seasoned strip of pork steak with chef's own orange and almond salsa £4.55

Pickled Chilli Peppers with Spanish jamon with, skewered and grilled £3.95 *

Fresh Fish Casserole – inspired by the Spanish cazuela £4.45 *

Garlic King Prawns – Sliced grilled freshwater King Prawns with roasted

garlic and chilli salsa £4.65

Sea Bass – Grilled with caper butter and herbs £4.50

Paella – Using Spanish paella rice with fresh mixed seafood and seasonal vegetables £4.55

Spanish Anchovies – The real, whole marinated "Boquerones" £3.95

Speciality Mahón Cheese & White Asparagus Salad, with marinated

capers & olives (V) £3.95

Grilled Marinated Artichokes – chargrilled and served with roasted red peppers (V) £3.55

Sweet Corn and Spanish Cheese Croquets (V) £3.95

Smoked Spanish ewe's milk cheese, over grilled

fresh asparagus (V) £3.95

Aubergine Wraps - Roast aubergine slices, with spicy Mediterranean vegetable pate and toppedwith Manchego cheese (V) £4.10

Mushroom Casserole – Rich and creamy casserole with lentils and vegetables (V) £3.95 *

Tortilla traditionally made with potatoes and eggs (V) £2.95 *

Chick Pea Salad with fried mixed vegetables blended with a

lemon spiced dressing (V) £2.95*

Cous Cous – seasoned with fresh herbs, raisins, almonds and mixed vegetables (V) £2.85

Roast Mediterranean Vegetables – pan fried with garlic oil and red wine vinegar (V) £3.05 *

Rice with herbs spices and pan fried vegetables (V) £2.15 *

Fried Potatoes with paprika and garlic mayonnaise (V) £2.25 *

Mixed Salad – Lettuce Tomatoes, Cucumber Olives, Artichokes (V) £2.75

Marinated Mixed Olives (V) £1.85 *

Fresh Tuscan Bread (V) £1.55 *

Desserts - £3.50

A selection of 100% organic desserts using the finest ingredients and made locally by our

specialist patisserie. Please ask about today's selection!

Coffees

We use the finest Spanish "Templo" Coffee, rich smooth and strong!

***