The basic plot of A Bit Of Tom Jones is based around the flims idea of a guy buying Tom Jones cock in a pub and spending the rest of the film trying to sell it to rich perverts that collect celebrity body parts. (Which is, of course, not unusual). It is a cross between Twin Town, Satellite City and a Carry On movie. On times the plot is - well - just plain silly, but there are a considerable number of scenes that produce all out belly laughs. Porn cinemas, brothels run by grannys in the middle of a valley terrace, police stations, helicopters and dumper trucks all some how fit into the story.

Featuring everyone’s favourite dirty granny, Margaret John (Gavin and Stacy, High Hopes), Denise Welch (Waterloo Road, Coronation Street), Johnny Owen (Shameless and a fans view of the Cardiff City in the FA Cup) and the legendary Geno Washington, it is a reminder of how much talent is about in Wales at the moment.

The mixture of familiar locations and valley humour make it quite unique and will be of special interest to valleys bods; although anyone with a wicked sense of humour will enjoy

This low budget (£100,00) film made in Tredegar (South Wales) was originally only intended to be shown in Wales, but is now starting to get a handful of screenings of cinemas over the bridge. Funded by local businessmen and with only  a handful of prints available, it has been outselling all other films in Merthyr Tydfil’s Vue cinema, including Michael Jackson and Michael Caine’s Harry Brown - and rightly so. This film is too good to be confined and sooner or later it is going to get the publicity it deserves.

Guardian article here

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BLACK POWER MIX TAPE 1967-1975 (2011)

Compiled from Swedish 16mm footage that had been lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for 30 years, this film documents the US Black Power movement from 67 to 75. Broken neatly into a chapter for each year, it tells us chronologically of the struggle for civil rights in a society that claimed to be all for equality and freedom, but clearly was not.

We get footage of Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Angela Davis, speaking from platforms, giving interviews and just hanging around; together with ‘ordinary’ black people discussing the struggle to just get by in  ‘the land of freedom of opportunity’.

The issue of violence v non violence is much discussed. Stokeley summing it up with an early statement, “Dr King’s policy was that if you suffer your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That is very good. He only made one fallacious assumption. In order for non violence to work your opponent needs to have a conscience. The united States has none.”

It is not all confrontation though and we see the Black Panther’s free breakfast programme which J. Edgar Hoover declared to be “The most dangerous internal threat to America”.

The decline of Black Power seems to have been down to a CIA plot to turn every black man in Harlem into a junkie. At least according to this version of events. We have the bizarre spectacle of a tourist bus driving though Harlem telling the Swedish tourists that they should not set foot off the bus because even ‘good’ black people don’t wander into Harlem for fear of getting mugged.

The publicity for the film refers to “The clear objective of introducing a new generation to the Black Power Movement”. Now this would be a tall order in ninety minutes and to be honest, if you don’t have some prior knowledge of the history, the film probably does not make a great deal of sense. There is a serious lack of context.

The press also refers to “Utilizing an innovative format that riffs on the popular 70s mixtape format, the Black Power Mixtape is a cinematic and musical journey into the ghettos of America”. This sounds exciting but is a case of misrepresentation. It certainly does not ‘riff’ like anything and the music is quite frankly incidental.

This negativity should not be taken as a condemnation of the film, it is interesting, enlightening and worth watching, it is just that it is not what the tin says it is. Anyone that turns up expecting a funky soundtrack and voiceovers by Danny Glover (he is a producer, name checking him in the publicity is unnecessary) will be sorely disappointed. A mix-tape this is not. If they actually publicised it as what it really is they might find they pull the right audience and they may well go away satisfied. As did we.

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“Banksy is a sell out”. So reads the graffiti scrawled across the wall. Is this true? Well, he has certainly progressed from being an unknown street artist to an internationally renowned (all be it still anonymous) street artist that can put on sell out exhibitions, shift books by the shed load and – now – make his own films.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is, on the face of it, a documentary made by Banksy about a guy that tried to make a film about Banksy but messed it up so Banksy made a film about him. There is no point getting too bogged down in the plot because to be honest, it is difficult to tell if it is a genuine documentary or if it is another one of Banksy’s magnificent pranks.

Narrated by Rhys Ifans we are taken on a journey through underground street art with a host of graffiti artists, guerrilla stencil painters and pranksters. Whilst Banksy is the highlight of the film, it is clear he is not alone with numerous creative subversives making an appearance in this roller coaster ride that has you grinning, admiring, and on occasion down right laughing, for 87 minutes.

Whilst this is based in ‘underground’, DIY, street art; many of Banksy’s pranks are clearly not cheap. Some punk with a spray can he is not. We get telephone boxes bent in half, giant spray cans and exhibitions with live elephants painted like flock wall paper. Where the money for all this comes from is never explored. A trip to across the Atlantic to do a bit of graffiti is taken for granted, as if it is the most natural thing in the world.

Most of his antics are clearly beyond the pockets of 99% of street artists, but does that really matter? His blend of satire, art, humour and subversion has simultaneously given the art establishment and street art a kick up the rear end. Art is supposed to be about originality, so we don’t want loads of copy cats, but if it inspires kids to do a bit more than just inane tags on bus stops and brightens up our streets then surely that is no bad thing.

Fair play to him though, despite his global fame he appears to have stuck to his roots. His website declares:

"Banksy does not endorse or profit from the sale of greeting cards, mugs, tshirts, photo canvases etc. Banksy is not on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Gaydar. Banksy is not represented by any form
of commercial art gallery. All images are made available to download for personal amusement only, thanks".

What impact this thought provoking film will have on movie making is difficult to tell, but at the moment that is not important, all that matters is that it does what all good films should do, entertain, inspire and agitate. If you don’t leave the cinema after seeing this film eying up a bit of blank wall you have no soul.

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