I just saw your comment on Lav Diaz's page. Oh man, you went to the Slow As festival in Newcastle? It looked fantastic, and I only wish I could have afforded to go (no job atm). It would have probably been as cheap for me to fly abroad, than get the train or bus to Newcastle.
Did you just attend the main weekend, or did you stay for longer? I've never attended festivals, but that seemed to be the most interesting lineup I could think of, and as you say they are mostly films we aware of, love, own on DVD, and would love to see on the big screen, but would rarely get chance to. Nice to see you enjoy Tsai's work too, as he is still my favourite director and I love virtually all of his films. I downloaded Nine Muses yesterday and it looks fantastic, so it was nice to see your comment a few minutes ago.
I only attended the special Slow Cinema weekend. I was in the middle of my spring semester and couldn't afford to go anywhere for much longer. But the lineup for this weekend was interesting in that they predominantly screened films you can't even get on DVD. It felt like a privilege to watch them, especially in the Star & Shadow Cinema in Newcastle, which is a real experience. I can tell you this for sure.
Sounds great. I hope they run it again in future years, and it must have been interesting attending the Q and A sessions too. I heard Alonso couldn't make it, but nice to see Lav was there. I hope Lav can get his films distributed professionally at some point, as the only film that has been was the Visitors short.