Portobello Film Festival
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On last Sunday afternoon, I travelled by train to Waterloo station in London, as my filmmaker friend Jeannie invited me to join her at the
Portobello Film Festival inside
Westbourne Studios.
I invited some friends to come with me, but most of them were sadly too busy to come out. Another friend Jude was free to join Jeannie and I, so we both met up at Waterloo station.
Jeannie told me that she would meet us at Baker Street Underground Station, so Jude and I caught the tube to there.
When we arrived at
Baker Street we waited inside a nearby bar for Jeannie.
Unfortunately, I got a call from Jeannie to say some of the underground stations were closed, so she would be a bit late, as she would have to re-plan her route to get to us.
To kill some time Jude and I had a walk together around Baker Street. There are many things to do and see round there. As we walked, we saw
Madame Tussauds, which is a waxwork museum, and then a
Sherlock Holmes statue. Jude took my photo standing by the statue. There is a
Sherlock Holmes Museum somewhere along Baker Street, but we could not find it.
Standing by Sherlock
Jeannie called again, and asked if we could both meet her at Westbourne Studios, which is where the Portobello Film Festival was being held.
We got on the tube from Baker Street to
Westbourne Park Underground Station.
When we got off the tube train at Westbourne Park, the heavens opened and it poured with rain. Luckily, we had umbrellas, but due to the intensity of the rain, we still both got wet.
I asked directions from a tube worker where Westbourne Studios was located, and he said turn, right, then right at the pub, then right, then right again, which was basically a full circle.
We followed his directions, but we just came to houses. I thought the tube worker may have been taking the mickey, so we looked at the map, and walked the other direction, but still could not find the place.
I asked a bus driver at a bus station where Westbourne Studios was, and he said the same thing “turn, right, then right at the pub, then right, then right again” but when Jude questioned him further to say we went that way, he also mentioned a foot bridge.
We walked back that way, and saw the Westbourne Studios building over a wall, and then found the footbridge to cross over to it.
Jeannie was standing outside of the studios waving to us. I was glad to see her there.
I introduced Jeannie and Jude to each other, and then we went inside the building to see the Portobello Film Festival event.
We had a walk round the building.
A painting of a Burlesque dancer on the wall
It was not that busy at the film festival when we first arrived there, which might have been to do with the heavy rain that day. So, we walked on further to a nearby pub, then stayed there for a while, and returned to the event later on.
Back inside the event, we saw a live band playing carnival salsa music, who were very good.
The carnival band
There were small palm trees dotted around, which had blue fairy lights around them. A bar was also at the event, with some big sofas to sit on.
Looking down on the event
I picked up their film guide to see
what they were showing that day.
Jeannie wanted to see a German film at 6pm called ‘Horch’, so we entered their cinema to watch it.
The film was in German with English subtitles. The setting was in a fascist/police state in the near future. The story was about some filmmakers, who break into the Babelberg Film Studios, to shoot their feature film. During the shoot, the police chase them, as the police are against the subject of their film. It was a bit weird in places, as a few abstract things were going on, which made the story difficult to follow. The female filmmaker in the story was wearing a feather bower, and during a scene she was on top of a building, she grew feathers and started to fly across the city night sky. When other people entered the cinema at different points of the story to see the film, we were blasted by the sound of the live carnival band outside, which was funny. Jeannie and I found the film a bit disappointing. There were far better other films to see, but you can never tell until you go to watch something, to whether it is any good, or not. Jude enjoyed the film though.
After we watched the film, we did not have time to see any others.
We left Portobello Film Festival, and Jeannie suggested we walk to
Notting Hill.
It was nice to walk along
Portobello Road together. It is a good area with interesting and different coloured buildings.
The rain came back with quite some force, soaking us three as we got to Notting Hill, so we dived into the nearest bar.
The bar we found was a great choice, as they had a tropical island theme inside, so it helped to rid negative thoughts of the bad English weather.
They had real white sand on the floor, with parasols above our tables made out of thatched reeds. I could almost imagine being on a hot sandy beach. It made the place feel warmer than it actually really was. I ordered a very nice cocktail, whilst Jeannie had a mug of tea, and Jude had a cola.
We took some photos of each other in the bar. But Jeannie and Jude did not like the pictures of themselves, due to getting a bit wet in the rain, so I have removed their faces from the pictures below.
Jude and Jeannie
Me and Jude
After we finished our drinks, I was going to go for a meal with Jeannie, but Jude needed to head back home, due to starting back at her teacher job the next day. So I headed back towards home on the trains with Jude.
I thanked Jeannie for a great day out together in London.
I left Jude at Waterloo station, as we both catch different trains to get to where we both live.
London is a great place, with lots of fun things to see and do. I will return there again soon.
Posted by Barry on 06 September, 2008 2:30 AM | Permalink
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