Youth in Revolt – Glasgow Youth Film Festival 2012

Last night saw the launch of Glasgow Film Festival’s 2012 programme – it’s bigger, bolder and busier than ever. But before you take a highlighter pen to that bursting brochure to start planning two weeks of sitting in the dark watching films by the likes of Aki Kaurismäki, Werner Herzog and the Brothers Dardenne, I’d urge you to put some of your cinema pocket money aside for the equally ace Glasgow Youth Film Festival, which runs directly before GFF, from 5 to 15 Feb. More than just an amuse-bouche to the main event, this small festival, programmed by a dedicated group of whip-smart teenage cinephiles under the tutelage of the GFT’s excellent learning team is overflowing with meaty movies to get your teeth sunk into.

GYFF’s UK preview of those loveable oddballs, The Muppets (5 Feb, 4.30pm), is sure to be a sell-out, but discerning cinema goers should also give some love to one of the hands behind the felt faces. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (15 Feb, 8.15pm) tells the story of Kevin Clash, a likable Baltimorean who never fancied being anything as prosaic as a fireman, train driver or astronaut growing up. His ambition was to spend his life elbow deep in an animal’s backside entertaining children. The Baltimore petting zoo, understandably, put out a restraining order, but its loss was Jim Henson’s gain. This warm-hearted doc tells how Clash got his start on the ladder of his unconventional career and found his true calling when a Sesame Street producer handed him a lovable crimson ball of fur called Elmo.

Talking of adorable teddy-bears, GYFF is hosting the UK premier of Azazel Jacobs’ Terri (9 Feb, 8.30pm), the latest film starring everyone’s favourite craggy-faced indie actor, John C. Reilly. JCR plays a well-meaning high school principle who takes one of his more feckless students, the eponymous overweight sad-sack with a proclivity for wearing pajamas in public, under his wing. This bitter-sweet comedy received a warm welcome when it played at Sundance last year and it should make the perfect precursor to the GYFF’s late night screening of the great high-school misfit movie of our time, Jared Hess’s squirm educing laugh-riot Napoleon Dynamite (10 Feb, 11pm). Fill your pockets with some delicious tater taunts beforehand, though: you’ll need your energy if you’re heading to Nice’n’Sleazy (free entry with your ticket stub) for a post-film boogie. Sleazy’s has some Jamiroquai on its jukebox, right?

There was no shortage of misfits in Richard Linklater’s 1991 debut Slackers. For its 20th anniversary, The Austin Film Society has paid loving tribute to this indie movie touchstone by doing a 'Gus Van Sant': they’ve remade the film scene-by-scene as an act of cinephilic homage. Each of the original’s twenty-four hilarious vignettes have been re-imagined by a different filmmaker (I can just imagine the battle for the 'Madonna pap smear' scene now) and the result, Slackers 2011 (8 Feb, 10.30pm), is a fitting love-letter to Linklater’s film and the city of Austin. Producer Daniel Metz will be in town to introduce this European premiere.

Given the age of the GYFF’s programmers (15 to 18-years-old), it’s unsurprising to find a festival peppered with films dealing in adolescent turmoil. These coming-of-age tales work as cinematic road maps for the GYFF’s hormone addled teen audience and as nostalgia-inducing time machines for fossils like me to recall a time when catching the attention of that object of affection took precedent over getting those Ikea shelves assembled. Providing this dual function are The Wise Kids (12 Feb, 7.30pm), which sees a trio of teens dealing with their religious belief and sexuality in a Christian community in South Carolina; J'aime regarder les filles (14 Feb, 7pm), a sharp French comedy where a left-leaning high-school boy gets seduced by a beautiful rich girl who invites him into her world of preppy teens who holiday in Saint Tropez; and Play (13 Feb, 6pm), a Swedish drama where five African immigrant boys clash with three well-heeled white kids on an afternoon in Gothenburg. The Wise Kids screening includes a panel discussion to celebrate LGBT History Month, while Play is followed by a debate on the issues it raises.

Throw in some animation (folklore shadow plays Tales of the Night (11 Feb, 1.30pm), Makoto Shinkai’s acclaimed anime Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below (12 Feb, 5.30pm); a couple of sports-movies (washed-up skater doc Dragonslayer (15 Fed, 6.15pm), period football drama Lessons of a Dream from Germany (15 Feb, 3.15pm)); time travelling Samurai fantasy A Boy and His Samurai (12 Feb, 12.30pm); plus some great looking events (a Movie Poster Design Workshop (12 Feb, 12.30pm) and a Film Director Masterclass with Luke Snellin (11 Feb, 2pm)) and you have a small but perfectly formed film festival.

But here’s the real reason to adore GYFF: its continued success flies in the face of our current ConDem government that has no clue how to best nurture film culture in the UK or the talents of our young people during this period of arts cuts and record youth unemployment. If the children really are our future, GYFF’s programme suggests we might not be as fucked as it appears after all.