In August expect a feast of both small arthouse features and action packed big hitters.
Inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen, ‘Blinded by the Light’ opens on 9 August 2019. Directed by Gurinder Chadha (Viceroy’s House), this coming-of-age musical comedy takes inspiration from the life of British journalist Sarfraz Manzoor who co-wrote the screenplay. It tells the story of how the music of Springsteen changes the life of a British-Pakistani Muslim teenager forever.
With Jacob Tremblay (Room) in the main role, you could be forgiven for believing ‘Good Boys’, released on 16 August 2019, to be a nice little film that is suitable for children but with Seth Rogan (Pineapple Express) co-producing, it is anything but. Rated R in the United States, it means 12-year-old Tremblay won’t be old enough to watch it. I predict a riot!
Gerard Butler (The Phantom of the Opera) returns as the eponymous character of American Secret Service agent Mike Banning in ‘Angel Has Fallen’, which hits the silver screen on 21 August 2019. In this third instalment of the Olympus Has Fallen film series, he is framed for a failed assassination of President Allan Trumbull played by Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption).
With a high pedigree of talent that includes Rosamund Pike (A Private War), Clive Owen (Closer), Joel Kinnaman (Robocop) and Common (Selma), ‘The Informer’ will arrive on 30 August 2019 with the thrilling promise of crime, power and undercover operations that will hopefully match the quality of its ensemble cast.
In Scotland I attended Dunfermline High School from 2010 to 2016 and Edinburgh Napier University from 2016 to 2020, emerging with two Advanced Higher and five Higher qualifications from the former and graduating with an undergraduate bachelor of arts honours degree in journalism from the latter. After two years away from further education due to the coronavirus pandemic, I'm going to be studying the MFA Photography course at York St John University in England from 2022 to 2024. I've achieved The Duke of Edinburgh’s (Bronze) Award and received grade five level certification for electronic keyboard from Trinity College London. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, writing, watching television series, listening to music and going to the cinema as well as catching up with friends, travelling by railway and hostelling overnight and overindulging in food and drinks in a pub or restaurant then having to go to the gym to burn it all off again.
By studying journalism and photography, my aim of practicing photojournalism professionally will hopefully be once step closer. Both are partial artforms requiring the rest of the work to be undertaken by the audience, the specialism of photojournalism, however, providing each of its two parts with greater context. Exploring photographic techniques (aerial, timelapse, editing) through a variety of journalistic styles (features, poetry, songwriting) will allow me to develop my portfolio, hone my camera skillset and narrow my focus further in anticipation of working life. Without a global pandemic to deal with this time. Fingers crossed.
