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A DVD screener, EPK, plus a non-refundable entry fee of £25 is the requirement for filmmakers, production companies and voluntary organisations wishing to submit a short film, documentary or feature length movie. All cheques should be made payable to ‘Buff Enterprises Ltd’. Please send all materials plus a cover letter to British Urban Film Festival 2010, Buff Enterprises c/o 4front Films, 27 Ithica House, Romford Road, London E15 4LJ. More details can be found at www.britishurbanfilmfestival.co.uk

Organisers of the British Urban Film Festival have already confirmed that the hit stageplay-turned-box office movie Sus will be the opening feature film for its’ annual showpiece later this summer. It marks the second year in succession that actor Clint Dyer has featured at the event having starred in the Channel 4 documentary ‘Rappin at The Royal’ which showed at the 2009 British Urban Film Festival.

For all queries please contact:

Buff Enterprises Ltd
c/o 4front Films, 27 Ithica House, Romford Road
London E15 4LJ
Tel: 08712 885 785
Email: info@buffenterprises.co.uk
Company Profile

Buff Enterprises owns and organises the annual British Urban Film Festival in London. It also runs as a production company which makes reality shows and produces documentaries which profiles independent film in the UK. It also publishes a monthly internet blog which features insider news and gossip on the UK film industry. The festival has been supported previously by national bodies including ITV, the UK Film Council and the NHS and has staged over 50 screenings attended by over 1,000 adults and young people since 2008.

A few hours before he hit the stage to perform and host the live music event Groove Gumbo at The Pigalle Club in London, Eric Roberson gave an impromptu interview to Catch a Vibe. The singer/songwriter had a lot to say about his visit to London, his music and a few of his favourite things.

Eric Roberson will host Tribute to Prince at the Jazz Cafe on May 29th at 7pm

For submission details visit: BET – Lens on Talent

HBE are the eight sons of jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran, joined by a drummer.  They play trumpet, trombone, baritone horn and the very impressive sousaphone –“the one that goes round the player’s body and sits on his shoulder”.

The most striking feature of HBE’s music is that they know exactly how to blend their hip hop and jazz roots into a unique and versatile sound. It is sharp, powerful, exciting and raw.Although the very first opening act was rather forgettable, HBE’s set was preceded by an extraordinary performance from Canadian afrobeat 6-piece band Souljazz Orchestra, which ended in a special feature tribute to Fela Kuti.
HBE started with a super punchy urban track, with ultra-fast no-messin’ rapped vocals, which was followed by 8 tracks from their vast repertoire, each one delivered flawlessly. That is unless the occasional explicit lyrics are considered a flaw.

The excellent Smoov #%&@ from the album The Brothas was absolutely magnificent.  Icing on the cake, these guys really know how to shake it. For their encore they invited members of the public –mainly female– to join them on stage to dance, seemingly possessed, whilst they kept on playing a soca style piece. One can legitimately question the absence from the set of some of the splendid tracks from HBE’s last album The Brothas such as Planet Gibbous or Toussaint.
The band features on the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, and may even support them on their forthcoming London show at Camden Roundhouse.
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is truly phenomenal.
Next UK show:
31 July 2010
Field Day
Victoria Park

Next album release:
April 2010
The Heritage

Writers of all backgrounds and all levels are more than welcome, however the focus of these classes will be connecting Black British writers with a wider creative aesthetic, as well as writing from the African diaspora. Any genre is acceptable, though the classes are primarily focused on dramatic prose.

Classes will take place on the the third Saturday of every month and will begin from the 15th May through to the 17th July. This is a fee paying workshop and so fees for all three workshops must be paid at the first class. Payments accepted in cash only.

For more details or enquiries please contact Courttia at urbanfactor@gmail.com
.

VENUE: 16mm, D’Arblay St, London W1F 8ED. Closest tube Tottenham Court
Road/Oxford Circus

DATES: 15th May, 19th June, 17th July

TIME: 10.30am-1:30pm

FEE: 90/70 Concs (please bring proof of low income).

The FD4W International Film Festival (FD4WIFF) will take place in London, UK from 9th-12th September 2010.

Submissions will be accepted from women film directors in the following four categories:
· Features
· Shorts
· Documentary shorts
· Documentary features
Prizes will be awarded for:
· Best Feature
· Best Short
· Best Documentary
· Most Promising New Director
· Audience Award
· Best Student

The deadlines for entries are:
· Early bird deadline – Friday 30th April 2010
· Regular deadline – Friday 28th May 2010
· Late deadline – Friday 25th June 2010

FD4WIFF will accept films made between June 2005 and May 2010. Highlights from the festival programme will be announced at a press launch in July.

Further information
Fd4w founder Ruth Torjussen began teaching confidence building, women-only film directing courses in September 2009 with the aim of contributing to the worldwide movement that will see a huge rise in the number of films being directed by women. (Currently only 6% of film directors are women. Source: BEV 2009). Such was the success of the courses that in just a short time Filmdirecting4women has become a grassroots community of women film directors with many more courses, monthly networking/screening events, an ever-growing online members support network and now their own international festival.

The inaugural FD4W International Film Festival will be a creative space where women directors will be inspired and encouraged.

All enquiries to:
Pauline Walker
Festival Manager
FD4W International Film Festival
Mobile: 07896 413575 / Email: pauline@filmdirecting4women.com
Website: filmdirecting4women.co.uk/film-festival and filmdirecting4women.co.uk

My favourite pieces are from Bestow Elan and Chichia London. The former offers pieces that are effortless and chic, while the later showcases warm colours and prints that pay homage to East Africa.

I really liked the opener for Bestow Elan, a blue jersey dress I can only describe as complex-simplicity.  The overall effect of the cut-out detailing across the chest and left shoulder with the draping at the hem, allowed the dress to move comfortably against the model’s body, while subtly accentuating her shoulders and legs. Also, the blue tailored trousers with a cream (or was it a very pale yellow) blouse and the white tailored trousers with a black top made me want to reach for my purse.  Designer Erzumah Ackerson’s takes great care in framing the neck, collar bone and back creating a focal point worthy of a double-take.

Christine Mhando of Chichia London won me over with her use of vibrant colours and prints. Her signature blend of Khanga, a traditional East African printed cotton fabric, and modern shapes fall in line with catwalk trends for Spring/Summer ’10. The eye-catching beige and chocolate print dress with unexpected pops of blue, green and pink piping was fun and flirty. The closing look is a great example of mixing prints and colours effectively. At first glance one might be confused by the pairing, but somehow it works.  A word of caution, attempt to recreate this combination at your own risk; there’s a science to it!

Talking about the track, Jamie says: “There’s a real science to choosing covers.”

“I did Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ the day after it was released but soon enough, everyone was doing it. With ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ it was the lyric that grabbed me. It is such a sexy lyric. And I was able to transform the song into something totally new sounding.”

via Clickliverpool

Our list of hot albums released this year

– The Guardian —

Read more reviews from the BBC, The Independent, Spin Magazine and more after the jump!

– BBC Music —

Whenever an artist describes their latest work as “a journey”, invariably the only journey a listener wishes to embark on is the one to the off switch. But Keys’ canny ability to fox and beguile make The Element of Freedom an unexpected pleasure.

Love Is Blind opens the album and is fairly characteristic; it’s like a more melodic version of Kanye West’s Say You Will.  This Bed (with Keys on Moog bass) is the greatest lost Philadelphia International Records’ love song you’ll hear in a long while; Beyoncé appears and duets on the bright and clattering Put It in a Love Song. The album closes with Keys’ own version of Empire State of Mind, building on her vocal refrain and bridge from her collaboration with Jay-Z. If ever a song was awaiting a Broadway show to be written around it, this is it. With the rap removed, its straight, literal descriptions of New York and elegant grand piano mean this is the only time the album strays fully into cliché.

The lasting impression of The Element of Freedom will be the disconnect between the prettiness of the songs and the enormity of the beats. Alicia Keys has just made the US diva album for those who can’t abide US divas.

Full review: Daryl Easlea, BBC Music

– The Independent: 3/5 stars —

The Element of Freedom, her fourth studio effort, starts promisingly. Opener “Love Is Blind” makes inventive use of left-to-right stereo panning and sudden drops into a capella, and hopes are high that Keys and coproducer Kerry “Krucial” Brothers are dropping a game-changing opus, a female answer to Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreaks. It doesn’t take long, however, before the first warning signs rear their ugly heads: track two, “Doesn’t Mean Anything”, lazily resorts to the trite and trusted.

Tracks drift by disappointingly, anodyne and indistinguishable. (I genuinely had to keep checking the LCD display to see if we were still on the same track.)

At times, it’s like being force-fed bowl after bowl of semolina. We’re joltedout of the sugar-coma by a shouted greeting “Hey, yo B!/What up, A?”, the cheesily chummy intro to the Beyoncé duet –andtherefore, by law, future single – “Put It in a Love Song”. It’ll be everywhere, although the dreamy, sun-dazed production of the following track “This Bed” is far more deserving of the attention. When the penultimate track “How It Feels to Fly” begins, you can place a bet as to exactly when the choir will come in and how it will be deployed, and you’re probably right.

Keys is that most frustrating of things: a stunning talent who’s too happy to give the world more of which it already has a surfeit. Maybe next time she’ll push herself further.

Full review: Simon Price, The Independent

– Spin: 2.5/6 stars –

Alicia Keys’ 2007 smash “No One” launched this once-precocious R&B singer to U2-level save-the-world-with-song status. So you can’t really blame her for carbon-copying its charms in “Doesn’t Mean Anything,” the openly anthemic lead single from Keys’ fourth studio set. (Also unsurprising: the tune’s plodding similarity to “With or Without You.”) Yet on an album called The Element of Freedom you may wonder where all the freedom went: In most of these dozen tracks (not including a ponderous intro regarding the necessity of risk and a slow-jam sequel to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”) Keys seems uninterested in breaking new ground, snooze-controlling her way through a series of familiar piano-soul platitudes. A couple of nifty exceptions brighten things up, such as “Love Is Blind,” an 808s & Heartbreak-style future-funk jam, and “Put It in a Love Song,” which features the always dependable Beyoncé. But The Element of Safety might’ve been a more accurate title.
Mikael Wood, Spin

Chris Rock was awarded the Best International Comedian gong but unsurprisingly was not in attendance. Young white comic Kevin J was recognised as Best Newcomer and also performed. He killed the audience with laughter about his tales of being a white boy growing up with Nigerians.

But the night belonged to double award winner Slim (Best Male Comedian and Best T.V Performance), he let us know on a serious note that he had been through some personal problems in the past year, so congratulations to him on coming out on top on the night.  Unfortunately the winner of Best Female Comedian, Glenda Jaxson, was announced when she was not even in the building. However, not one to be denied the spotlight she took to the stage later in the evening and had her moment. The award for Outstanding Contribution was given to pioneering black comedy show the Real McCoy; the organisers have to be praised for acknowledging the work of such an important programme in Black British television history.

Whilst a number of well known faces such as Richard Blackwood, Rudolph Walker, Yolanda Brown and MTV base producer Jasmine Dotiwala were in attendance, there was a notable absentee. Bill Bellamy was the face of the awards so it must have been a disappointment for those expecting his presence to not to see him show up. The promoters Harmony Productions were fair and honest stating they were ‘doing their best’, which with all the bad luck they had was all they could do on the night. Although it may not have been the fault of the promoters the audience may have left feeling a little short changed.