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| Click Here to Download a Press Pack Pdf | ||
Ginger Beer is a romantic comedy set in the world of ballroom dancing. The central character is Paul, a rather insecure gay teacher at an agricultural college. He gets a hard time from his students – not only because they suspect he is gay but also because they find out he is secretly taking ballroom dancing lessons. His life then takes a major turn for the better when he discovers a gay dance studio run by Linda, a glamorous lesbian dancing teacher. Linda teaches Paul to dance – which he finds he does much better if she leads and he follows! But will he be able to face his students at the college’s Christmas party – with his new boyfriend in tow. The eclectic soundtrack includes a track by Barbara Cook (the legendary New York cabaret singer); a waltz by Khachaturian; a Puccini love duet; and a show-stopping number called Two Men Dance the Tango sung by Michael Callen, the American pop singer and AIDS activist, and Tom Robinson, the English singer best-known for the original 70s gay anthem, Sing If You’re Glad to be Gay. The film is shot on standard 16mm film and last 17 minutes. |
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The romantic comedy, Ginger Beer, is the first production by the independent film company, cheek2cheek productions, which was set up in London in 1998 by Andrew Odgers, Janet Potter and Seamus Rea. Ginger Beer is a 17 minute short film, shot on 16mm in both colour and black & white, which was produced and edited by Janet and Andrew. It was also the first film directed by Seamus Rea. |
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Screenings |
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Ginger Beer has been a big hit on the film festival circuit and has picked up no less than three awards. At the BBC British Short Film Festival in 2000, Ginger Beer won the BBC Radio 1 Audience Award for the film which received the most audience votes for the most enjoyable film from amongst the 350 films from all over the world which were shown at the festival. Ginger Beer also proved a favourite with the audiences at the Verzaubert Film Festival in Germany which screened the film in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. Ginger Beer was again voted one of the most popular films in the Festival by audience members. Earlier, Ginger Beer won an Audience Favourite Award at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival from a field of 260 films shown. On top of these successes, Ginger Beer has had a full schedule of festival appearances since its sold-out premiere at the National Film Theatre in London as one of the hits of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The film has now been seen at film festivals in the following cities: Italy: Turin and Milan Ginger Beer has also joined the mile-high club, as Virgin Airlines acquired the film and showed it on all their routes for three months including the coveted London-New York route |
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Awards |
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Other Recognition |
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The British Council selected Ginger Beer as one of the films which it would promote overseas in 1999/2000 as an example of film-making in the U.K. and awarded cheek2cheek productions a grant of completion funds towards the costs of producing the final print. Matthias Strunz, the programmer of the Verzaubert Film Festival, was invited by the Chicago Reeling Film Festival to be a guest programmer and put together a programme of shorts entitled “A Ticket to Hollywood”. The festival booklet said that the programmer “had searched the world to bring together some of the best narrative short films by a group of directors from whom he believes we will see more and longer works in the future”. Ginger Beer was one of the 8 films selected. BBC Choice, the BBC’s digital channel, and Virgin Airlines both wish to acquire Ginger Beer for broadcast and in-flight entertainment and cheek2cheek are currently negotiating the acquisition of the relevant broadcasting licences for the music used on the film soundtrack. |
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Film Festivals Screenings |
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The complete list of cities in which Ginger Beer has been screened is as follows: |
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Africa: |
Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town |
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Australia: |
Sydney |
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Belgium: |
Brussels |
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Canada: |
Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal |
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Finland: |
Turku |
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Germany: |
Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Strasbourg, Frankfurt |
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Ireland: |
Cork, Dublin |
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Italy: |
Milan, Turin, Bologna |
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Japan: |
Tokyo |
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Russia: |
St Petersburg |
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Switzerland: |
Bern |
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UK: |
London (G&L Film Festival, BBC Short Film Festival, Raindance Independent Film Festival), Birmingham, Purbeck |
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USA: |
New York, San Francisco, Austin, Chicago, Palm Springs, St Louis, Seattle, Philadelphia |
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Have you ever stood in the middle of a hot, sweaty club and wondered what was the story behind the guy at the bar with the slightly crazed expression? So have we… Two Minutes after Midnight is a comic exercise in magical realism – with a witty script and a sting in the tale. John is a rather shy guy. He goes to a hot, sweaty club late on a Saturday night and spots a guy he fancies. He takes his courage into his hands and tries to chat him up at the bar but gets a brutal put-down. Retreating to the toilets to recover, John meets an Angel (it happens all the time). Sounds like fun? It is fun! Until Two Minutes after Midnight... John, the leading rôle in Midnight, is played by our new discovery, Andrew Hinton Brown. Andrew graduated from drama school on Thursday, auditioned for us on Saturday and got the rôle on Sunday. Before auditioning for us, Andrew’s main claim to fame was that his ex-girlfriend was in Big Brother. This was his first proper audition and, since he had only just left drama school, his agent put him up for one of the smaller rôles in the film. But Andrew gave such a blinding performance that we asked him to come back the next day to audition for the rôle of John. On Sunday, Andrew proved that there was nothing in the rôle that he couldn’t do so we followed our instincts and - despite him being up against a lot of other highly Just remember where you saw him first. Mark Wakeling plays the Angel. Mark is currently playing the lead in Athol Fugard’s Playland at the Jermyn Street Theatre. His TV work includes a trio of military rôles - Sword of Honour, Band of Brothersand - in a slightly more mythical vein, the Young Parsifal in Tony Palmer’s film, The Search for the Holy Grail. John the Hunk is played by Adrian Bouchet. Originally from Zimbabwe, Adrian was a civil engineer and body-builder (brains and brawn) before turning to acting. Adrian’s extensive theatre work ranges from Shakespeare and An Evening with Gary Lineker to touring the world with the Dreamboys. He is the Gigolo in Nine Dead Gay Guys, the new film by Lab Ky Mo which received a huge amount of press attention as "the scandal of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival". American film executives walked out in droves. Obviously a must-see. Nigel Shipp plays the rôle of Dick. Nigel has represented his country at Judo and represented Clearasil and Schwartzkopf as a model. He turned from model to actor under the scrutiny of a TV documentary series. The rôle of Tom is played by Alex King. |
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| Technical details | ||
The film is shot on HD Video and lasts 11 minutes, and is 16x9 ratio (anamorphic).This film is also available on Digi Beta and Beta SP (Pal format)A 35mm print and also NTSC format copy is available through our distributor, Jeff Crawford in Canada |
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Screenings |
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London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (including national Best of the Festival tour) |
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The Judas Kiss is a film without dialogue, telling its story solely through images and haunting music. What sound does a heart make when it cracks? Is there any music that can replicate it? Chris goes to the club with his boyfriend, Jude. It’s just another Saturday night out – a few drinks, some laughs, a workout on the dance floor. The Judas Kiss tells its story entirely through images, without the help of dialogue. The story bounces back and forth in time as Chris’s emotional response to the events of the night unravels. The film is bound together by the sublime music of Handel – the aria, Scherza infida, unforgettably sung by one of the great singers of our time, the American counter-tenor, David Daniels, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Why Handel? Hearts broke in the eighteenth century, just as hearts break now. The cast... Dominic Power plays the lead rôle of Chris in The Judas Kiss. Dom has played everything from one of the suspected murderers of Stephen Lawrence in Granada’s BAFTA award-winning film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence to Jesus Christ in What Iffor Williams Films. Trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School, Dom has been a regular in Grange Hill, The Bill and Eastenders. He recently played Pete in Not Gods But Giants at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. |
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Technical details |
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The film is shot on HD Video and lasts 11 minutes, and is 16x9 ratio (anamorphic).This film is also available on Digi Beta and Beta SP (Pal format)A 35mm print and also NTSC format copy is available through our distributor, Jeff Crawford in Canada |
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Screenings |
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Dallas Lesbian and Gay Film Festival |
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And introducing... |
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John, the leading rôle in Midnight, is played by our new discovery, Andrew Hinton Brown. Andrew graduated from drama school on Thursday, auditioned for us on Saturday and got the rôle on Sunday. Before auditioning for us, Andrew’s main claim to fame was that his ex-girlfriend was in Big Brother. This was his first proper audition and, since he had only just left drama school, his agent put him up for one of the smaller rôles in the film. But Andrew gave such a blinding performance that we asked him to come back the next day to audition for the rôle of John. On Sunday, Andrew proved that there was nothing in the rôle that he couldn’t do so we followed our instincts and - despite him being up against a lot of other highly experienced actors - we gave him the rôle. Hisperformance on film has completely surpassed all our expectations. You’ll be seeing a lot more of Andrew. Just remember where you saw him first. |
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The Cast... |
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Dominic Power plays the lead rôle of Chris in The Judas Kiss. |
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Dom has played everything from one of the suspected murderers of Stephen Lawrence in Granada’s BAFTA award-winning film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence to Jesus Christ in What If for Williams Films. Trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School, Dom has been a regular in Grange Hill, The Bill and Eastenders. He recently played Pete in Not Gods But Giants at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. |
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Mark Wakeling plays the Angel in Two Minutes after Midnight. |
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Mark is currently playing the lead in Athol Fugard’s Playland at the Jermyn Street Theatre. His TV work includes a trio of military rôles - Sword of Honour, Band of Brothers and - in a slightly more mythical vein, the Young Parsifal in Tony Palmer’s film, The Search for the Holy Grail. |
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John the Hunk in Two Minutes after Midnight is played by Adrian Bouchet. |
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Originally from Zimbabwe, Adrian was a civil engineer and body-builder (brains and brawn) before turning to acting. Adrian’s extensive theatre work ranges from Shakespeare and An Evening with Gary Lineker to touring the world with the Dreamboys. He is the Gigolo in Nine Dead Gay Guys, the new film by Lab Ky Mo which received a huge amount of press attention as "the scandal of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival". American film executives walked out in droves. Obviously a must-see. |
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Nigel Shipp plays the rôle of Dick in Two Minutes after Midnight. |
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Nigel has represented his country at Judo and represented Clearasil and Schwartzkopf as a model. He turned from model to actor under the scrutinyof a TV documentary series. |
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The rôle of Tom in Two Minutes after Midnight is played by Alex King. |
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Alex is currently playing Ritchie Atkins in the ITV series, Bad Girls. |
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