What I have learned already is that this is a tough assignment. Fun, but a little more taxing than I’d considered. While I think I’m doing OK and will hopefully get better I’m not really doing justice to some incredible films. So seeing as I had three very good pieces of cinema to watch today it only seems fair for me to embed the tiny reviews here and then expand on them a little.

First up was Paul Koutecky and Miroslav Janek’s CITIZEN HAVEL:

LFF: Citizen Havel on 12seconds.tv

Knowing a little about the Velvet Revolution, but hardly anything about what followed in the Czech Republic this documentary was a real eye opener. I admit to dragging my heels a little towards the South Bank this morning. The sun was out and it seemed crazy to spend two hours in a dark room with revolutionary types. Thankfully from the very outset Citizen Havel is so warm an illustration of one man that you are immediately drawn into the heady days of 1992 and follow very closely this former political dissident as he becomes the first president of a very new country. As political documentaries go I’ve never seen anything quite like this film as the people behind the camera are given unprecedented access to a series of unprecedented events.

Other key figures of the period pass through (Blair, Bush and even a saxophone tooting Clinton), but Vaclav Havel remains front and centre and always an intellectual first, a state leader second. It’s an often hilarious look at a normal man standing up for what he believes in suddenly thrust into an international spotlight, holding the country together as others try and bring him down.

A treat of a movie and highly recommended, it plays on the 22nd and 26th of October. Full details here.

The London Film Festival press screenings start on Monday. I got my press pass yesterday and because I’m incredibly busy at the moment (genre-crossing sci fi tv doesn’t just write itself you know) I was looking for a slightly different way of covering the films this year.

After a quick conversation with Christian and Sol I decided to do a series of pithy film reviews on 12 Seconds. I have no idea yet how I’ll boil down some of the best cinema in the world to only 12 seconds, but I’m looking forward to kicking this off. I will of course be doing more traditional text reviews to accompany the best (and maybe worst) of the festival this year, but with 3 films a day starting next week the short video content should soon add up…

I’ll be embedding the vids here of course, but you can always jump into 12 Seconds and record your own mini reviews. Can you sum up The Breakfast Club, Star Wars or Night of the Living Dead in so short a video? I’d love to find out…

I love the tiny window this gives you. It’s still not quite the video equivalent of Twitter, but it could get there once people find a way to @ one another and follow the conversations. Not that I think that’s a priority. Right now it’s just fun to see what can be achieved in such a confined space. Christian as always is way out ahead:

No Ones Slave, No Ones Master. on 12seconds.tv

When I logged on for the first time it was a little like a video conversation yearbook. All the familiar faces where there already. I noticed that while most people were faltering with the built in limitations of the platform Christian was already on his 8th page of videos! I mentioned this to Jess and her reply was:

He’s like Monkey: irrepressible!

It’s not a bad comparison. He’s a little wayward at times, but makes for an excellent ambassador. If I was starting any video related platform I’d ensure he had an invite from day one. He brings an audience and certainly puts a new place through its paces.