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Marc Karlin: Opening Thursday 5 April, 6 - 8pm Picture This Video Shop and Arnolfini Picture This, in association with the research project “In the Spirit of Marc Karlin”, is pleased to present an exhibition and screening programme focusing on the work of British filmmaker Marc Karlin (1943-99). The Video Shop at Picture This hosts a presentation of short films, photographs, documents and journals, whilst at Arnolfini, we present a weekend of screenings and talks (see below for full programme). Marc Karlin is an important but neglected figure within the British film avant-garde of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He was a member of the film collectives Cinema Action and the Berwick Street Film Collective, active within the film union ACTT and the Independent Filmmakers Association, and a founder member of the group which set up the journal of independent film, Vertigo, in 1993. His groundbreaking films for television in the 80s and 90s combine documentary and fiction film tropes to explore the themes of memory, history and political agency. Karlin was a committed political filmmaker, but his dense, yet subtle films are also rich meditations on the nature of filmmaking, the formation and collapse of ideologies, and the endurance of the human spirit. Two short films made for television – Haircut (1998) and A Dream from the Bath (1985) – shown on monitors in the Video Shop illustrate the range of Karlin’s practice. Haircut is a brief but searing satire on New Labour’s rise to power, whilst A Dream from The Bath is a more meditative and philosophical work about the history of film production in the UK and the migration of the cinematic to the stage of everyday life, utilising still images and elaborate domestic tableaux around which the camera restlessly tracks. On show in the display cabinets of the Video Shop are a series of page layouts designed by Katy Hepburn for a book version of Nightcleaners (1974) by the Berwick Street Film Collective begun in 1975, but never published. Also on display are a number of journals featuring texts by Karlin and production stills from Nightcleaners and its sequel, ’36 to ’77 (1978). A weekend screening programme at Arnolfini (13 – 15 April) begins with the seminal, Nightcleaners (1974). Initially commissioned as a campaign film in support of an attempt by the women’s movement to unionise London’s night cleaners, the film soon became something else entirely. Shot in black and white, and punctuated with sections of black leader, Nightcleaners fuses political documentary with a rigorous reflection on the materiality of film and the problems of representing struggle. The programme continues with three films that Karlin made for television in the 1980s and 90s. For Memory (1986), features E.P. Thomson, and explores historical memory, Between Times (1993) looks at the fate of the British Left in the wake of Thatcherism, and The Serpent (1997) is a drama-documentary about Rupert Murdoch told through the lens of Milton's Paradise Lost. Each film brilliantly captures the mood of the left in Britain through the 80s and 90s, whilst the aesthetic and political issues, and questions, they raise remain relevant and urgent. Screenings: Nightcleaners (1974) Friday 13 April, 7.00pm For Memory (1982) Saturday 14 April, 3.00pm Between Times (1993) Saturday 14 April, 7.00pm The Serpent (1997) Sunday 15 April, 11.30am Roundtable Discussion 2.00 - 4.00pm Each screening at Arnolfini is followed by a Q&A, and the weekend concludes with a roundtable discussion. The contributors include Holly Aylett, Jonathan Collinson, Kodwo Eshun, Humphry Trevelyan, Shelia Rowbotham and Steve Sprung. The project is generously supported by Arts Council England. With special thanks to Arnolfini, BFI, LUX, and In the Spirit of Marc Karlin (Holly Aylett, Hermione Harris and Andy Robson). -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. Membership is open to all who teach and research these subjects in HE institutions, via either institutional or individual membership. The field includes film and TV production, journalism, radio, photography, creative writing, publishing, interactive media and the web; and it includes higher education for media practice as well as for media studies. This mailing list is a free service from MeCCSA and is not restricted to members. For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------