Reggae and road movies lead a feast from Australia and Jamaica

Jun 15 2009 By Barbara Hodgson, The Journal

FILM buffs can take their phones off the hook and keep their diaries free this week as Tyneside Cinema launches a double-bill film festival.

The Newcastle cinema is hosting a mix of features, documentaries and shorts from as far afield as Australia and Jamaica in a film-fest starting tomorrow.

First up it’s London Australian Film Festival, which ends its UK tour with a two-week Tyneside run.

Showcasing the best cinema from Down Under, which has just been screened in the capital, the programme includes Jasmine Yuen Carrucan’s fast-paced road movie Cactus, starring Bryan Brown, and Rats and Cats – Tony Rogers’s incisive black comedy on the nature of fame.

Punctuating the fortnight will be the Reggae Film Festival this weekend.

Part of this year’s Red Stripe Boss Sounds Festival of music, it is the first time the festival has taken place outside Jamaica.

At 2pm on Saturday and Sunday audiences can see films which promise to satisfy reggae aficionados everywhere.

The first day includes a look at the golden age of Jamaican music and the transfer of ska to the UK, and Sunday’s line-up includes a documentary about the 1978 One Love Peace Concert featuring Bob Marley.

The event is also providing training for a refugee film maker to make a documentary of the festival.

Adam Collerton, director of the Boss Sounds Festival – in which roots legend Freddie McGregor and ska king Derrick Morgan will be joined by The Congos and Owen Gray at The Cluny on Saturday and Sunday – said: "It’s great to have the Tyneside Cinema on board for this year’s festival.

"The film screening programme complements the live shows perfectly."

For details on the screenings, go to www.tynecine.org/whatson