(British Premiere)

John Maybury : Read Only Memory

Wednesday 13 February  -  from 19^h00

Twenty years of selected archive footage from one of Britain’s foremost experimental film-makers. Read Only Memory was produced by Maybury to compliment the release of his controversial film Love Is The Devil. His significant contribution to experimental film and video becomes apparent through a complex reworking of archive footage.  Maybury creates a cerebral landscape populated by punks, new romantics, Leigh Bowery, Neneh Cherry, Stella McCartney, Michael Clark, drag queens and speed fiends.

Stephanie Smith and Edward Stewart

Thursday 14 February - from 22 ^h 00

Making video works of extraordinary rigour and intensity, Smith/Stewart distil their works into taut tape-based micro-dramas or more theatrical installation settings. A selection of single-screen pieces that revolves around a central action/performance by the artists themselves, highlighting the themes of identity, intimacy and interdependence that are at the heart of Smith/Stewart’s work. These visceral pieces pack a graphic, provocative power that continues to reverberate in the mind.

A Film and Video Artists on Tour presentation by Film and Video Umbrella, London supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England.

Tracy Moffatt: Night Cries 

Friday 15 February – from 22 ^h 30

On an isolated, surreal Australian homestead, a middle-aged Aboriginal woman nurses her dying white mother. The adopted daughter’s attentive gestures mask an almost palpable hostility. Their story alludes to the assimilation policy that forced Aboriginal children to be raised in white families. The stark, sensual drama unfolds without dialogue against vivid painted sets as the smooth crooning of an Aboriginal Christian singer provides ironic counterpoint.  Moffatt’s first 35mm film displays rare visual assurance and emotional power.

 

Julia Bardsley: Snow

Saturday 16 February – from 22 ^h30

Finding himself surrounded by the dense motion of snow, a man battles with consciousness.  He walks, struggling with memory and orientation.  Fragments of possibility emerge and dissolve.  But where would he be without his chair? The chair and the game keep him sane. A meditation on perception and deception of the eye and mind, based on a short story by Ted Hughes.

 

The films will be screened repeatedly till the end of the evening.