In a dilapidated barn, things take a surreal turn for the worst at Coastside Films Friday

Friday, the Coastside Film Society presents the US debut of the new feature film from British Independent director, Ruaridh Webster.
Director Ruaridh Webster is flying in from London at his own expense to attend the screening.  He met film club board member Jean Slanger at a screening in London.  Jean was blown away by the film and asked if they could screen it in Half Moon Bay. He agreed and after checking out the Society decided he had to be here for a first-hand experience of his first American audience.

Before the feature, there will two short films.

In THE BARN (2004), when a crooked deal goes bad for 2 Americans they find themselves locked in a dilapidated barn in the middle of the English countryside. This is new film from the United Kingdom that recently won awards from the Raindance Film Festival and Leeds Film Festival.

Take a smattering of David Mamet and douse liberally with Samuel Beckett and you have some idea of what THE BARN is like. It’s the strange story of two Americans who after a crooked deal goes wrong find themselves locked in a dilapidated barn in the middle of the English countryside. As their attempts to escape look increasingly futile, the pair begins to bicker amongst themselves. That’s when things begin to take a surreal turn for the worst.

The two leads in this film, Adam Long and Jake Broder, are well known members of the the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

An auspicious debut feature for director Ruaridh Webster that delights and infuriates in equal measure.  Webster and his Director of Photography, Oliver Schofield, are jetting in from London to attend CFS Film Night and answer questions from the audience.

There will be two shorts before the main feature.

In THE VERGE (1998), Two friends wait by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. They hitchhike. No one comes

In A CAR STOPPED (2000), Neal and Jack, young American friends, are traveling. England. Still on the road and dreaming of Kerouac and Bob Dylan, living the American dream on the roads of Britain. Dreams and fantasies fading into the ether, each is presented with the raw characteristics of the other. As time progresses one’s wisdom becomes evident; life, inevitably is circular.

Saturday night, the Coastside Film Society presents a collection of short films by Bill Brown and Thomas Comerford, two of independent cinema’s greatest and best known nomads.  When audiences did not flock to see their early films they decided to be aggressive and bring their films to the audience.  They loaded up a pickup truck’s worth of films, projectors and screens and set off across America looking for college campuses, coffee houses and living rooms to screen their films in. Now that they are better known they have a better choice of venues. in which to show their films.  Word is starting to get around that Half Moon Bay is the place to go to screen independent films in the Bay Area. They gave us a call and we scheduled this special Saturday screening of Film Night in Half Moon Bay.

Brown and Comerford like to say their films are about the space of history and the history of spaces. Together and separately they roam the country trying to create films that that capture the essence of the places they are filming.

The films will be shown at 8:00pm at the Community United Methodist Church Sanctuary, 777 Miramontes (corner of Johnston) in Half Moon Bay.  A $6 donation is requested.