Cinema, community & getting it done
It’s always exciting getting an invite to a private screening – there is the thrill of exclusivity, there is a frisson in the bar. Happy people glammed up a bit, holding bottled beer and nodding at each other - “How do you know the filmmakers?” “Are you in the industry too?” “I love your leather jacket” – it’s a kinder, gentler way to do a bit of schmoozing. But lording it over all that is the excitement of the film (s) to come and the buzz that that something has been pulled off, that something has been achieved. For TheNeverPress it hits different - we feel like we’re in a heist movie.
We’re rarely wrong. Especially in this instance. Amenno have done something here, at All is Joy in London. And it’s evident from tonight’s introduction to their DIY cinema ethos that they are gonna keeping doing things.
The thing? Cinema on their own terms… the paragraph after this one is cribbed from the full colour printed brochures that were handed out at the screening. Actual brochures: the type of which Picturehouse ping out every month with their listings. Amenno don’t hold back. All in.
Founded in 2021 by young filmmakers Alex Shin, Aum Patel, Harry Reeves and Ibrahim Kargbo JNR, Amenno aims to cultivate a collective of filmmakers, artists, actors and technicians that support each other’s projects and dive in to get it up on screen.
‘Amenno is built on community. Whether that is helping get the projects off the ground, actually filming them, or being here in the cinema… we believe that everyone has a role to play in the nurturing and development of the filmmakers of the future. Let’s create our own space for cinematic exploration. Let’s exhibit films whilst building a community around us’
This is the heist-energy TheNeverPress were talking about. Amenno see the opportunity and they back their skills and talent to exploit it. They assemble the crew. They make their plans. They get to work, and they pull it off.
And by the evidence of the diverse five films on display this evening, they smash it. Before we get to the films screened, a shout-out to the effort Amenno put in on curating the entire experience. Before the lights go down and the logo comes up, we have been treated to bespoke cocktails, themed to the films. We’ve been escorted to a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos taken from set. And yes, they even have crew t-shirts for whatever they are shooting. So impressive. Then, before we are invited into the screening room, we have a second gallery of beautifully designed film posters advertising the program to come. It’s this attention to detail that elevates everything and tells TheNeverPress that Amenno are serious about what they are doing, and they really, really fucking care about it.
Let’s just compare and contrast this to a different screening experience we had just the other day. We went to see a screening in Dalston, put on by a reputable screening initiative (we won’t name and shame them) We paid a tenner. The room was kinda set-up (there were some chairs and high-stools. Weird.) The organisers literally walked in, hit the spacebar on a MacBook HDMI’d into a projector to start the film and then fucked off. That was the whole experience. For a tenner. Contrast that with what Amenno are creating and you get a sense of the commitment and the ‘all-in’ love or death belief in what they are doing.
Image copyright: Amenno
And onto the films…we will give a little rundown of each, but this article is more about the experience of the evening and Amenno itself, rather than detailed reviews of the films screened. We are hoping that we can interview the filmmakers of each one, and spin out articles on each film to really get under the hood. We want to squeeze every opportunity we can out of this. And if we did all that in one article, you’d be reading for days.
So then, first up Harry Reeves introduces his film ‘Housekeeping’ – a pitch-black comedy about a cleaner in a halls of residence trying to do his job. Playing with the adage that students sleep like the dead, Reeves wrings out every drop of tension and humour he can from the narrow confines of the Halls corridors and the boxy student digs. Mark Rush (who will pop up again, later in the evening) gives fantastic weary deadpan to the proceedings. He has been doing this gig for years, and seen every sordid, degraded ‘studenty’ act known. And he has moved passed it. You can see it in his tired eyes. Poor love. And then he knocks on the door of the wrong dorm. Short and sharp, ‘Housekeeping’ gets in and gets out without over-staying it’s welcome... but Reeves certainly lets you know who was at the party. This is a director who takes his beloved influences and reframes them through his own lens. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Next up, ‘aṇmol ṛiśhtā’ – a truly immersive 16mm quasi-documentary shot on the streets of Mumbai. Directors Ibrahim Kargbo JNR and Steve Cookson arrived in Mumbai with a basic idea – someone carrying a mattress through a bustling city (any more bustling than Mumbai?) They had no script, they had no cast. Just a camera, a fixer and a mission to make a film. It’s exhilarating to watch what they have captured – you can feel the city, you can take it all in and almost feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of life upon life upon life, overlapping, swirling, merging… and in amongst the chaos of that, you find the story. Soon it comes into focus, the woman with the mattress making her way through life. It’s powerful and immersive. We feel crushed by the weight of the city and elated by the orb of love that is held within this woman and her mattress.
Tonally a million miles away from Reeves’ film, and already Amenno have solidified their ethos. Whatever the project, they service that. No ‘brand’, just story. And they go for it.
As an invitational film created by people within the Amenno network, How To Build A Life follows and we were not prepared for this documentary by Matthew Reese. Reese interviews his younger brother Louis, who lives with Aspergers. With astonishing bravery, Louis candidly talks about the decade of bullying he suffered, the incredibly imaginative worlds he retreated into, the frustration and confusion that those worlds which he loved and existed in were not the real world, and how the ‘real world’ pushed him to nearly end his own life. However, with the love of his new best dog friend and a renewed passion for Lego in the form of stop-motion, Louis rebuilt his life. Listening to Louis share is story so openly and knowing that he is doing so directly to his older brother is a beautiful, wrenching layer to this brilliant documentary.
There is an intermission here, perfectly placed so that the room can regroup, grab a drink and pretend that we’ve all been chopping onions.
Back we go with a second invitational film - the prestige production of Seasalter Road by Will Kenning, starring writers Mark Rush (him again) and Julia Parlato. An estranged daughter returns to the family home to help her brother finish packing away their dearly departed mother’s items. The brother, tenderly played by Rush has stayed in the home to care for the mother. The daughter long-since moved away to live her life. There are unspoken tensions and resentments that bubble under the surface; historical missteps and miscommunications creak like the ancient floorboards of the rustic house they are knocking about in. But, like the beams holding it all together, the familial bond is strong. Seasalter Road is a tender, honest film that is beautifully composed and shot with a cinematic elegance that envelops the audience. It’s a beautiful piece of work.
We end the night with a screening of the film that started the Amenno initiative. ‘Discordance’, by Aum Patel is a magical realist film that speaks of the world we inhibit where we can dance freely and with love, and the thin mirror to this world where we are awkward, shy and sometimes unable to trust in ourselves to let go. Set in a dance studio, a determined computer scientist practices his dance alone, when everyone else has gone. He stumbles. He falls - even in this private space he cannot allow himself to be free. Only in his imagined world, a void empty of judgement or distraction can he dance freely. Back in the real world, he is interrupted by a dance instructor. His privacy shattered, his self-recriminations at his failings heightened. The tender and patient nature of the student, teacher dynamic plays out for us in calm, authentic moments of private dance. It’s a surprisingly effective and heartfelt film, and it’s an assured debut from Patel.
The films screened for us are diverse, unique, interesting and made with care and precision. Everything is up on screen. In between each film, there are short Q&As and TheNeverPress are surprised and heartened to hear that nearly every question was from young, aspiring filmmakers wanting to know how Amenno did this, how they pulled it off. And the answers, in true Amenno spirit, were encouraging, honest and open. Get idea, get friends, get camera, get shooting. You can feel the passion and enthusiasm for what Amenno are doing in their answers, in their infectious, animated joy in telling other creatives to just go, get out there, shoot something, shoot anything…just go, create. And the fact that the audience is filled with so many young, aspiring artists just proves that Amenno are onto something. They know what time it is. TheNeverPress hope to work with Amenno on a variety of articles, we hope to talk with them, learn from them and find out the secret sauce of their energy. We hope to create with them.
And there the evening comes to a close, all that’s left is the bar – and the embers of that Amenno heist-energy. We stumble out into the Soho night filled with excitement. The mission has been set out, and we accept. Long live doing the thing. Long live cinema. Long live Amenno.
This article is fully independent and the view expressed here is our own. Other views are available from other writers in other publications. x