29 September 2020
Newsdesk
The 64th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) in partnership with American Express has today announced a programme of Screen Talks and events that will take place across the 12-day Festival period and free to access via YouTube and the BFI social channels. Additional events focused on XR and immersive art will also take place inside of the LFF’s newly created virtual exhibition space The Expanse and its virtual theatre. All talks and events are free and accessible to both UK and international audiences.
Actors Riz Ahmed and Letitia Wright will join filmmakers Michel Franco, Miranda July, Tsai Ming-liang, Christian Petzold, musician and performer David Byrne and artist Es Devlin (as part of LFF Expanded), for a series of LFF Screen Talks offering audiences a unique opportunity to learn about the careers of these renowned creatives. . In addition to Screen Talks, the LFF will also host live salons and discussion events tackling subjects emerging from the films.
In a new initiative, the LFF have worked with BFI Film Academy to support young curators and programmers to develop and produce events designed by them which are of relevance to younger film lovers from 16-25 years old. Both playful and political, these talks touch on issues of identity and representation on-screen as well as the barriers facing young people entering the film industry and developing workable solutions to redress this.
Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director said: “It was important to us to offer many ways to engage with the Festival for free this year, and we are excited that this incredible range of speakers and talks is available for free, not just to anyone in the U.K., but also wherever you are in the world.“
A series of in-depth talks will also take place virtually during the Festival designed to get audiences thinking and engaged in debate around the pressing issues explored in a number of the Festival titles this year: Anna Bogutskaya, co-founder of horror film collective The Final Girls, leads a conversation exploring the female horror renaissance with some of the most exciting women working in horror today in THE FEMALE HORROR RENAISSANCE, presented by Sight & Sound; British filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, director of ONE MAN AND HIS SHOES, a documentary that tells the story of the phenomenon of Air Jordan sneakers, is joined by sneaker archivist Kish Kash and Jason Coles, author of Golden Kicks: The Shoes that Changed Sport, to discuss the film and explore the history and cultural significance of sneakers; and film critic Kaleem Aftab discuss issues of identity in the depiction of the British Asian experience with AFTER LOVE director Aleem Khan, Hardeep Pandhall (Happy Thuggish Paki) and Dawinder Bansal (Jambo Cinema).
This year’s Treasures strand brings recently restored cinematic classics and discoveries from archives around the world to audiences across the UK and will also present two events based around a key film screening as part of the strand: REFLECTIONS ON FRIENDSHIPS’S DEATH will see actors Bill Paterson and Tilda Swinton, producer Rebecca O'Brien and cinematographer Witold Stok discuss Peter Wollen's FRIENDSHIP’S DEATH, which has been newly restored by the BFI National Archive, and PETER WOLLEN: WRITING, DIRECTING, POLITICS, FILM is an appreciation of the great auteur’s work with academics and filmmakers Laura Mulvey and Kodwo Eshun and BFI Archivist Wendy Russell.
In partnership with BFI Film Academy, young audiences will be treated to a number of topical and pertinent talks across the Festival including QUEER AND PLEASANT LAND, a panel discussion exploring cinematic answers to the question: what does it mean to be queer in a rural community?; ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE, will offer a rare chance to discuss the possibilities for disabled people to create and provoke with their visual art and PICK ‘N’ FLICKS, where artists Mandla Rae, Ruari Paterson-Achenbach and Yandass Ndlovu - a dancer, a poet and a composer – encounter famous cinematic representations of their craft and explore how film interacts with other art forms. The Festival will also host WHAT’S STOPPING YOUNG PEOPLE GETTING INTO THE FILM INDUSTRY?, an event that will aim to undo some of the barriers disadvantaged young people face in breaking into the film industry. Opening with a screening of a film by one such filmmaker, this event will offer a platform for a broader conversation about these issues and offer practical solutions to them.
LFF Expanded will present a number of original and thought-provoking panel discussions and talks around the medium of VR as well as some very special opportunities to meet the artists and explore pioneering new works including FUTURE RITES & CHAOTIC BODY 1, where acclaimed choreographer Alexander Whitley will give an insight into two of his upcoming immersive dance projects; ARTIST TALK: BRAVE NEW WORLD with the artists behind AGENCE (Anna West and David Callahan) and TO MISS THE ENDING (Pietro Gagliano) – two very different projects dealing with the dystopian possibilities of Artificial Intelligence. There is also the opportunity to explore Baff Akoto’s poetic work LEAVE THE EDGES in the virtual auditorium and listen to the artist talk about his artistic practice, which combines film and immersive technology; and ANTI-GONE, offering audiences the chance to experience a new way of hybrid virtual theatre-making in this extraordinary performance by multi-media artist Theo Triantafyllidis.
CHILL OUT – EXPANSIVELY will also offer audiences a moment to unwind after the busy first weekend of BFI London Film Festival in the Expanse – guests can listen to some chill-out music and exchange their impressions, thoughts and findings of the first days with other visitors, industry colleagues and filmmakers. It’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on the works seen during the last few days and connect with other like-minded festivalgoers.
The Festival will culminate in an LFF Audience Awards ceremony with the public taking the place of the Festival’s Official Jury. Viewers engaging with the Festival online will be invited to vote in four categories: Best Fiction Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Short Film, and Best XR. The winners of the BFI London Film Festival 2020 Virtual LFF Audience Awards and The IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award in association with the BFI will be revealed during the awards ceremony, which will be broadcast on Sunday 18 October at 19:00 on BFI YouTube and social channels.
The full programme of talks and events can be found here: https://www.bfi.org.uk/explore-our-festivals/bfi-london-film-festival
SCREEN TALKS
SCREEN TALK: LETITIA WRIGHT
Supported by American Express
Thursday 8 October, 18.30
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Much celebrated Guyanese-British actor Letitia Wright joins us to discuss her stunning performance in our opening film MANGROVE (Steve McQueen), as well as her outstanding career to date. Trained at Identity School of Acting in Hackney, Wright’s first leading role was as troubled teenager Jamie Harrison in Urban Hymn (2015) – a powerful drama that unfolded against the backdrop of the 2011 London riots. Over the past ten years, Wright has played dynamic roles in several feature films and TV series, including a charismatic turn as Shuri in Black Panther (2018), which brought her international recognition. She also appeared in British dramas Top Boy, Banana, Humans, Doctor Who and Black Mirror. Wright was listed among the BAFTA Breakthrough Brits for Urban Hymn and in. 2019 she received the BAFTA Rising Star Award, as well as the Outstanding Performance award from the Screen Actors Guild for Black Panther.
SCREEN TALK: MIRANDA JULY
Supported by American Express
Thursday 8 October, 20.30
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‘All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life – where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.’ Multi-disciplinary artist Miranda July has charmed the film world with three category-defying feature films: Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), The Future (20011) and now KAJILLIONAIRE, which is one of this festival’s highly anticipated premieres. Like her work as a writer with ‘The First Bad Man’ and ‘No One Belongs Here More Than You’, alongside her performance-based visual arts pieces such as her commissions for the V&A and Artangel, July’s films explore the lonely beauty of being human. They chart characters’ attempts to connect with and understand others, despite the cruelty of the world. It’s a great pleasure to welcome Miranda July back to the Festival, for this in-depth talk about her film work.
SCREEN TALK: TSAI MING-LIANG
Supported by BFI Patrons
Friday 9 October, 20.30
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With a unique body of work that explores time, space, memory and embodiment, Tsai Ming-liang is one of contemporary cinema’s most distinctive auteurs. He joins us to discuss his distinguished four-decade career, which has encompassed theatre and television work, gallery-based performances and his extraordinary cinematic output. Known as one of the masters of slow cinema, we will delve into Tsai’s unique approach to structuring narrative and framing images. A key voice in the second wave of New Taiwanese filmmakers, Tsai followed his striking debut feature about troubled youth in Taipei, Rebels of the Neon God (1992), with his international breakthrough Vive L'amour (1994). It saw him awarded the prestigious Golden Lion award at the 51st Venice International Film Festival, along with three Golden Horse Film Festival awards for Best Picture, Director and Sound. DAYS, Tsai’s astonishingly beautiful meditation on solitude, premiered in competition at the 2020 Berlinale and won the Jury Teddy Award for LGBTQI+ cinema.
LFF EXPANDED SCREEN TALK: ES DEVLIN
Supported by Nowness
Saturday 10 October, 18.30
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Few visual artists forge the physical and digital to such astonishing effect in quite the way that London-based artist and designer Es Devlin does. Whether working for the world’s top theatres or exhibition spaces such as National Theatre or the V&A, creating a piece for the Venice Biennale, or designing acclaimed immersive sets for artists like Beyoncé, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd, Devlin’s work is innovative, boundary pushing and always inspirational. Her play with light and digital projection creates sculptural, immersive experiences that draw in audiences, whether she’s working in gallery or public spaces and on any scale. The designer of the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012, Devlin’s plaudits include an OBE and three Olivier Awards. As we launch LFF EXPANDED, the first Immersive Art strand at BFI London Film Festival, it’s a huge privilege to welcome this pioneer to talk about her ground-breaking work.
SCREEN TALK: RIZ AHMED
Supported by Time Out
Sunday 11 October, 18.30
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Multi-talented actor, rapper and activist Riz Ahmed joins us to talk about his career and the making of MOGUL MOWGLI. With his roles in British independent features such as Chris Morris’ Four Lions and Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna, the Hollywood blockbusters Jason Bourne, Rogue One and Venom, as well as his Emmy-winning turn in The Night Of, Ahmed’s acting career has been stratospheric. Also known as Riz MC, he won critical acclaim with his albums Microscope and Cashmere, and raps in the band Sweat Shop Boys. In MOGUL MOWGLI, which he co-wrote with director Bassam Tariq, Ahmed plays a British-Pakistani rapper whose life spirals out of control when he succumbs to a debilitating illness. It’s yet another astonishing performance by this gifted performer.
SCREEN TALK: CHRISTIAN PETZOLD
Supported by Porsche
Wednesday 14 October, 20.30
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Acclaimed German director and screenwriter Christian Petzold joins us to talk about his career and the making of his ninth feature film UNDINE. A master at crafting understated yet deeply atmospheric dramas, Petzold graduated from the German School of Film and Television (dffb), where he met his mentor and frequent collaborator, experimental filmmaker Harun Farocki. An avid cinephile, Petzold is one of the founders of the Berlin School, a filmmaking movement exploring new aesthetics and cinematic expressions. His truly distinctive body includes the acclaimed ‘Love in the Time of Oppressive Systems’ trilogy of Berlin Silver Bear winner Barbara (2012), Phoenix (2014) and Transit (2018).
SCREEN TALK: DAVID BYRNE
Supported by Empire
Thursday 15 October, 20.30
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
David Byrne is the very definition of a polymath. A musician, artist, producer, activist, performer, writer, avid cycling enthusiast, web innovator, filmmaker and passionate campaigner for democracy and human rights. Born in Scotland, raised in Canada and American by nationality, it’s fair to say that many countries would be keen to call him a native son. And then there’s his style, which exists in a state of constant evolution. There are no parameters to his musicality or his interest in fashion. And from his wry humour to the warmth of his rapport with audiences – and not forgetting those booty-shaking dance moves – he is the consummate performer. And the perfect collaborator. He brings so much of himself to each partnership, but also embraces the inspiration that comes from work with such a wide array of creatives, from Jonathan Demme, St Vincent, Brian Eno and Caetano Veloso to Twyla Tharp, Fatboy Slim, Bernardo Bertolucci and now Spike Lee. The acclaimed New York filmmaker was enlisted to direct the fabulous and inspired concert film of Byrne’s American Utopia stage show, which was itself a marvel of collaboration. That film will be the starting point for this talk. But this being David Byrne, who knows where the event will take us. All we know is that it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
SCREEN TALK: MICHEL FRANCO
Supported by Little White Lies
Saturday 17 October, 20.30
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Franco stunned the world with his impressive 2009 feature debut Daniel and Ana, which focussed on a pair of affluent siblings who are kidnapped and forced to endure unfathomable emotional violence. And his star has been rising ever since. He won Un Certain Regard at Cannes with After Lucia (2012) and has attracted huge acclaim with his subsequent films: Through the Eyes (2014), Chronic (2015) and April’s Daughter (2017), as well as building a wide-ranging body of work as a producer, which includes 2019’s extraordinary Workforce. With films that are complex and not so easily categorised, Franco has proven a sharply observant chronicler of the increasing desperation and fury of Mexico’s exploited working class, but is also attuned to the dysfunction and moral decay of the country’s elite. NEW ORDER, which screens in this festival, brings together these two social groups in spectacular fashion, delivering an explosive, dystopian ‘Mexican disaster movie’. In it, the put-upon rise up against the privileged. It’s not an easy watch by any means, but this deserved winner of Venice Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize presciently captures the anger of our times. We’re honoured to welcome Michel Franco to the LFF to talk about his career.
XR EVENTS
MEET THE ARTISTS – LFF EXPANDED
Friday 9 October, 18.00
The Expanse, Reception
Get to know the artists involved in our new strand LFF Expanded and chat with them in an informal setting about their works featured in the exhibition. Artists will be present throughout the gallery space, offering visitors a chance to talk with them about their artistic practice, creation process and future plans. And what’s unique about this experience is that none of us has to travel – you can enter THE EXPANSE remotely from your home and contact filmmakers and their teams from around the world. Take this chance to connect with this amazing group of innovators – all from the safety of your home!
FUTURE RITES & CHAOTIC BODY 1
Friday 9 October, 19.00
The Expanse, Auditorium
Alexander Whitley is a London-based choreographer working at the cutting edge of British contemporary dance. He is known for producing technologically innovative and thought-provoking stage productions, as well as exploring the creative possibilities being opened up by new digital platforms for companies such as the Royal Ballet, Rambert and Birmingham Royal Ballet. The artist will present an overview of the upcoming projects: Future Rites and Chaotic Body 1.
Future Rites is an immersive and collaborative performance experience based on Igor Stravinsky ground-breaking ballet The Rite Of Spring. The experience combines motion capture, real-time animation and AI, inviting interaction between the public and a cast of dancers around themes of ritual, nature and sacrifice.
Chaotic Body 1 is part of Alexander Whitley company’s Digital Body project, launched in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It explores how dance can exist in a purely digital form, delving into the seemingly limitless ways in which human movement can be visualised through the use of using motion capture and games engine technology.
LEAVE THE EDGES
Saturday 10 October, 16.00
The Expanse, Auditorium
Leave the Edges is a rich and thoughtful exploration of the complex ancestries of African diasporic cultural expression, inspired by post-colonial African spirituality and artistic practices that range from West Africa and the Caribbean to Europe. It mixes subtle and exquisite film with live choreography to create a visual poem of dynamic interactions between image, dance, ritual and music.
Leave the Edges will be screened inside our virtual auditorium and followed by a short Q&A with the filmmaker. We are also showcasing Baff Akoto’s VR documentary series Virtual (Black) Realities as part of the LFF Expanded programme. The artist will give an insight into how the convergence between conventional and immersive filmmaking has influenced his work.
ANTI-GONE
Saturday 10 October, 20.00
The Expanse
Based on the original comic book by Connor Willumsen, Anti-gone is a multi-media performance by Theo Triantafyllidis that premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. This bold and visually outstanding piece employs motion capture technology and open-world-video-game mechanics to shape digital worlds in real-time. The story unfolds around Spyda and Lynxa, a couple navigating an apocalyptic, post-climate change world where environmental disaster and social unrest are constant. This exceptional concept creates a new form of hybrid theatre-making in the age of immersive storytelling.
Originally performed on-site/in the same room with actors, artistic team and audience members, we will present a remote performance in two different versions. There will be a live-stream broadcast of the virtual performance, which will take place remotely and simultaneously from Los Angeles and Athens. There will also be a virtual live performance of a scene from the piece inside our exhibition area The Expanse.
ARTIST TALK: BRAVE NEW WORLD – VR AND AI IN IMMERSIVE ART
Sunday 11 October, 16.00
The Expanse, Auditorium
Technology touches our lives constantly. Our society and each of us as an individual have become so reliant on it that it’s almost impossible to imagine what life would be like without it. Two of the most vibrant and widely discussed emerging technologies are Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Recently, major advances have been made to enhance VR and AI, bringing them together to create a single form of technology that offers seemingly endless possibilities. Two projects in our Lff Expanded programme deal with the deployment of those technologies on an artistic level: Anna West and David Callahan’s To Miss The Ending, and Pietro Gagliano’s Agence. The creators will talk about their projects and contrasting approaches to employing Artificial Intelligence within their immersive works.
CHILL OUT – EXPANSIVELY
Sunday 11 October, 20.00
The Expanse, Reception
Take a moment to unwind after the busy first weekend of BFI London Film Festival. Enter the virtual reception area in THE EXPANSE, listen to some chill-out music and exchange your impressions, thoughts and findings of the first days with other visitors, industry colleagues and filmmakers. It’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on the works you have seen during the last few days and connect with other like-minded festivalgoers.
YOUNG PROGRAMMER EVENTS
WHAT'S STOPPING YOUNG PEOPLE GETTING INTO THE FILM INDUSTRY?
In partnership with BFI Film Academy
Saturday 10 October, 12.00
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Curated by: Siavash Minoukadeh and Aisha Jan
Host: Caragh Davison
Panelists: Gage Oxley, Sam Fray and Christian Cerami
We want to work to undo some of the barriers disadvantaged young people face in breaking into the film industry opening with a screening of a film by one such filmmaker, this event aims to offer a platform for a broader conversation about these issues and offer practical solutions to them. Although young filmmakers are our primary audience, we want the industry – from practitioners to press – to attend in order to understand the issues disadvantaged young people currently face and to encourage them to help make the industry more accessible. Whether you’re starting out or facing obstacles as they progress, this event offers practical advice and information. It will share ways to overcome difficulties such as accessing funding, learning to network and making contacts, and finding opportunities for work outside filmmaking centres like London. It will also highlight the work and help offered by organisations and schemes targeting these issues.
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
In partnership with BFI Film Academy
Sunday 11 October, 12.00
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Curated by: Maya Sfakianaki, Sam Judd and Jessica Haygarth
Host: Maya Sfakianaki
Panelists: Justin Edgar, Sophie Leigh Stone and Sam Judd
Discussion around the possibilities for disabled people to create and provoke with their art is rare. Events promoting accessibility are often formulaic, usually aimed at access to the industry and not the talents and unique perspectives of disabled filmmakers. This event will recognise disabled filmmakers’ contributions to the landscape of film, whilst interrogating how their disabilities are a positive and integral part of their filmmaking. It will commence with an interactive viewing experience. A short film will be screened three times, each with sound and visual alterations. These alterations will mimic the experience of viewing film with limited senses. Finally, the film will be shown in its unaltered form. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion where director, producer and screenwriter
Justin Edgar, filmmaker Sam Judd and actress Sophie Leigh Stone will be discussing the possibilities of working as a disabled filmmaker and using your disability to create art. We aim to show disabilities as an alternative way of understanding the world and through it proposing a distinctive approach to filmmaking.
PICK 'N' FLICKS
In partnership with BFI Film Academy
Saturday 17 October, 12.00
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Curated by: Billie Collins
Host: Billie Collins
Panelists: Mandla Rae, Ruari Paterson-Achenbach and Yandass Ndlovu
What happens when you sit a queer, radical, feminist composer in front of Amadeus? How does a freestyle hip-hop dancer react to their first taste of Billy Elliot? And how would a spoken word poet take on the verse of Dead Poets Society? In Pick ‘n’ Flix three artists – a dancer, a poet and a composer – encounter famous cinematic representations of their craft and explore how film interacts with other art forms. Each artist has been assigned a film. We’ll get their initial reactions before watching a creative work they’ve crafted in response. We’re not here to talk about film – we’re here to make a song and dance about it.
QUEER AND PLEASANT LAND
In partnership with BFI Film Academy
Sunday 18 October, 12.00
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Curated by: Billie Collins
Host: Rico Johnson-Sinclair
Panelists: Rupert Williams, Emma Plover and Michelle Laverick.
Growing up queer in a rural town can make you feel like ‘the only gay in the village’. TV and film can become key for young LGBTIQ+ people living in the back of beyond and where real-life representation and visibility is thin on the ground. But the queers we see onscreen are often out-and-proud urbanites, moving in circles of glitter and fabulousness – not traipsing round fields and googling ‘how d’you know you’re gay?’. Queer and Pleasant Land is a panel discussion exploring cinematic answers to the question: what does it mean to be queer in a rural community? How can we ensure that rural queers see themselves on screen? And how do we bust the stereotype that you can only be gay if you’ve got an Oyster card and prove that a Drag Queen can rock a wellington boot?
DISCURSIVE EVENTS
THE FEMALE HORROR RENAISSANCE
Presented by Sight & Sound
Saturday 10 October, 16.00
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Notwithstanding its Scream Queens and Final Girls, horror was once considered the preserve of the male director and writer, its trailblazing female creators pushed to the margins. But in recent years the number of women making horror has boomed. A new generation of exciting female directors have broken through, and are bending rules and blurring lines. Alongside them have come a new generation of female writers, programmers and academics, who have helped broaden our understanding of the scope of horror cinema. But then, horror’s hidden power has always been its allegorical and political nature, so what better genre to explore the female experience? Anna Bogutskaya, co-founder of horror film collective The Final Girls, leads a conversation exploring the female horror renaissance with some of the most exciting new figures working in horror today.
BRITISH DOOSRA MOVEMENT: NEW IMAGES OF THE BRITISH ASIAN EXPERIENCE
Sunday 11 October, 16.00
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Three filmmakers with films showing in the London film festival, Aleem Khan (AFTER LOVE), Hardeep Pandhall (HAPPY THUGGISH PAKI) and Dawinder Bansal (JAMBO CINEMA), discuss issues of identity in the depiction of the British Asian experience. Their work challenges the idea, deep-rooted in British cinema, that the British Asian experience can only be understood by its intersection with dominant communities. For too long, the British Asian experience has been largely limited to storylines where a young Asian falls in love with a white person, family and custom get in the way and love eventually conquers all. This discussion looks at how each of these filmmakers celebrate their heritage, creating images that look at the complexities of double consciousness as well as more complex and impactful stories about the British Asian experience.
BEHIND THE SHOES: THE RISE OF SNEAKER CULTURE
Tuesday 13 October, 20.30
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
Filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, director of ONE MAN AND HIS SHOES, a documentary that tells the story of the phenomenon of Air Jordan sneakers, is joined by sneaker archivist Kish Kash and Jason Coles, author of ‘Golden Kicks: The Shoes that Changed Sport’, to discuss the film and explore the history and cultural significance of sneakers. Hosted by director, filmmaker, writer and stylist Basma Kalifa, the panel will also discuss the question: where will sneaker culture go from here?
SHORT FILM AND EXPERIMENTA DISCURSIVE ROUND TABLES
Across the Festival there will be watch-a-longs of each of the short film and Experimenta programmes followed by filmmaker Q&As hosted by the LFF short film and Experimenta programmers. Watch the programmes on BFI Player at 18.00 and then join the filmmakers live on Zoom afterwards.
Shorts Programmes Q&A’s
Thursday 8 October: SECRETS & LIES
Friday 9 October: KIDS WILL BE KIDS
Monday 12 October: MY TIME TO SHINE
Tuesday 13 October: UK FOCUS
Wednesday 14 October: WE BUILD A WORLD
Thursday 15 October: THIS IS THE RHYTHM OF LIFE
Experimenta Programmes Q&A’s
Friday 16 October: SPECULATIVE FUTURES + Filmmaker Q&A
Saturday 17 October: EXPOSING TERRITORIES + Filmmaker Q&A
TREASURES EVENTS
REFLECTIONS ON FRIENDSHIP'S DEATH
Saturday 17 October, 14.30
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
FRIENDSHIP’S DEATH was the only solo feature film made by the influential British film theorist Peter Wollen. Forceful in its politics and shimmering with prophecy, it remains bracingly relevant more than thirty years on. As we celebrate the return of this unique film to audiences, we are delighted that four key figures from the production are able to join us for two in-depth discussions. Lead actors Tilda Swinton (Friendship) and Bill Paterson (Sullivan) will join BFI curator Will Massa to reflect on their collaboration with Wollen as a director. Following this, the film’s producer, Rebecca O’Brien, and cinematographer, Witlold Stok, will join BFI curator Josephine Botting to tell the story of the film's production.
PETER WOLLEN: WRITING, POLITICS, FILM
Saturday 17 October, 15.30
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
To celebrate the remastering of FRIENDSHIP’S DEATH, Laura Mulvey and Kodwo Eshun join BFI Archivist Wendy Russell for an appreciation of the work of Peter Wollen. Mulvey and Eshun consider FRIENDSHIP’S DEATH, exploring multiple themes within the film, its political contexts and biographical circumstances. The discussion will broaden to consider Wollen’s eclectic body of writing and the unique critical perspective he brings to bear in a wide variety of fields, from his politically committed work to his screenwriting.
THE CHEATERS WITH PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY CYRUS GABRYSCH
BFI Player
Sydney’s Isabel, Phyllis, and Paulette McDonagh bucked a predominantly male film world and successfully produced four feature films between 1926 and 1933, including this charming 1929 release. Embezzler Bill Marsh (Arthur Greenaway) emerges from jail and working with his daughter Paula (Marie Lorraine), who serves as a bait, targets wealthy victims. He is also seeking revenge on businessman John Travers (John Faulkner), who turned him into the police. However, Paula falls in love with Travers’ son and starts to doubt her future in a life of crime. Highly regarded for its set design – including some striking details – mood and atmosphere, and featuring stunningly vivid tinting, THE CHEATERS is one of Australia’s major surviving silent films.
