Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

S*x Work, Activism and Collaborative Cinema: María Galindo and Revolución P**a (2023)

María Galindo in discussion with: Irene González-López)

deskt0p_cinema revisited
a lecture-performance by Greg de Cuir Jr

Four more events left this term,

First up,
DESKT0P_CINEMA REVISITED, 17 June 2024, 18:00
A illustrated lecture by film curator Greg de Cuir Jr, reflecting on the role on the role of the digital in contemporary film curating practices

Then, we're joined by María Galindo to discuss her new film, made in collaboration with Bolivian collectives of s*x workers
S*X WORK, ACTIVISM AND COLLABORATIVE CINEMA: MARÍA GALINDO AND REVOLUCIÓN P**A (2023), 21 June 2024, 18:00

Up next we have two examples of boundary pushing documentary filmmaking with the Ecstatic Truths Documentary Club's inventive double bill of PETER GREENAWAY'S 'ACT OF GOD' AND MARK LEWIS' 'CANE TOADS: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY
28 June 2024, 18:00

The finally, we end with a rare British silent film on 35mm with live accompaniment by Costas Fotopoulos.
MAN WITHOUT DESIRE (ADRIAN BRUNEL), 5 July 2024, 18:30

All events are free and can be booked below!

Hope to see you there!

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/?tag=49

Series of additions to our June Programme over on our website, currently in our bio

TIGRITUDES
DAY ONE
5 JUNE 2024 AT 18.30–20.30
Tate, Starr Auditorium

Over at tonight, their first leg of the ongoing film programme, which tonight focuses on Pan- African artist films..

"The UK Tigritudes programme expands on a project initiated by filmmakers Dyana Gaye and Valérie Osouf in 2020. The series offers a subjective, chronological anthology of Pan-African cinema, through 68 film screenings. Together, the works included in the season span decades, running from 1956 - the year of Sudan’s independence - to today. Organised chronologically, the screenings take place across venues in London, including at BFI Southbank and the Garden Cinema. Each tells the story of a moment in time, creating resonances between works, and allowing viewers to identify geopolitical or formal connections.

This first screening includes works by filmmakers Jyoti Mistry; Shirley Bruno; Hamedine Kane; Randa Maroufi; Franck Mukunday & Tétshim and Moïse Togo, as well as a conversation with Randa Maroufi and Ayesha Hameed."

Introduction for our Ukrainian modernism session by Professor Ian Christie

https://bimipresents.blog/2024/05/26/ukrainian-modernists-on-soviet-screens

Ukrainian Modernists on Soviet Screens It’s a pity the Royal Academy’s otherwise timely show ‘Modernism in Ukraine’ makes no reference to the explosion of Ukrainian talent in early Soviet film. However, a programme at Birkbeck’s BIMI on…

Ukrainian Modernism on Screen 31 May 2024

Ahead of a major exhibition of Ukrainian Modernist painting opening at the Royal Academy on 29 June, BIMI surveys the impact of Ukrainians on Soviet cinema’s breakthrough years. FEKS founders Grigori Kozintsev from Kiev and Leonid Trauberg from Odesa may have been the major contributors, with their atmospheric adaptation of the great Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat (1926). But Alexandra Exter designed sensational costumes for the USSR’s first sci-fi extravaganza Aelita, Princess of Mars (1924), while Mykola Shpykovskyi wrote and co-directed the surreal comedy Chess Fever (1925). As well as Chess Fever and The Overcoat, with live piano accompaniment by Costas Fotopoulos, the programme will include an extract from Aelita and a 1983 interview with Leonid Trauberg. Copies of Eccentrism Turns 100: FEKS and the Early Soviet Avant-Garde will be on sale.

Registration:

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event/42236/ukrainian-modernism-on-screen

1: Downside Up, Tony Hill
1984 ‧ 17m

2: Landscape Su***de, James Benning
1987 ‧ 1h 35m

Fascinating seeing the construction of Tony Hills classic experimental short Downside Up this evening

James Benning's Landscape Su***de (1986)
Screens tomorrow at 43 Gordon Square, Birkbeck University

This seminal work by James Benning, the experimental filmmaker who is now best known for his structuralist work documenting landscapes, explores the confessions of two murderers in the United States, who were convicted in 1984 and 1957; the first, a crime of passion by a high-schooler against her friend, and the second, a series of calculated murders by a lonesome farmer. The film casts actors who read aloud fragments of the court transcripts and recorded testimony, delving into concerns around reconstruction, forgetting, and truth.

Ukrainian Modernism on Screen 31 May 2024
https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event/42236/ukrainian-modernism-on-screen

With a major exhibition of Ukrainian Modernist painters opening at the Royal Academy on 29 June, BIMI surveys the impact of Ukrainians on Soviet cinema’s breakthrough years. FEKS founders Grigori Kozintsev from Kiev and Leonid Trauberg from Odesa may have been the major contributors, with their atmospheric adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat (1926). But Alexandra Exter designed sensational costumes for the USSR’s first sci-fi extravaganza Aelita, Princess of Mars (1924), while Mykola Shpykovskyi wrote and co-directed the surreal comedy Chess Fever (1925). And in 1926 Alexander Dovzhenko would make his debut made his debut at Odesa’s VUFKU studio. The programme will include Chess Fever and The Overcoat, with extracts from other work.

Join us for The Intermedial Body: Chinese Arts and Beyond, a two-day event that explores 'the intermedial body', including talks by artists and researchers and a free film screening taking place on May 10/11

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/intermediainterarts-workshop-3-the-intermedial-body-chinese-arts-and-beyond-tickets-882877820327?aff=oddtdtcreator

Our Spring Programme is now live, you can explore our range of FREE events and screenings through our website here:

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/?tag=49

Join us for a FREE screening of Ulrike Ottinger’s Paris Calligrammes, introduced by Mandy Merck

Released in 2020, "Paris Calligrammes" by Ulrike Ottinger is a captivating exploration of the vibrant Parisian arts scene during the 1960s. Through a unique blend of documentary footage and personal narrative, Ottinger takes viewers on a visually stunning journey, revealing the intersection of art, culture, and politics in the City of Light. From the avant-garde movements to the iconic landmarks, this film offers a poetic homage to the creative spirit that defined an era in Paris.

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=41794

In collaboration with Open City Documentary Festival we present a rare screening of Milestones by John Douglas and Robert Kramer

ICA | Essay Film Festival: Milestones A film about the American Left in the 1970s and the afterlives of political activism, a sprawling epic that interweaves the lives of numerous characters - hippies, farmers, immigrants, Native Americans and activists - as they navigate the complexities of American life. 

Afterimage and 'Structural Film'

Continuing the series that marks publication of the Visible Press’s Afterimage Reader, Simon Field and Ian Christie, editors of the radical film journal, reflect on its coverage of the structural film movement in the 1970s, championing such North American filmmakers as Paul Sharits, Hollis Frampton and Michael Snow, as well as British artists like Malcolm LeGrice, Lis Rhodes and John Smith working in very different styles.

Registration:

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=41791

Join us next week for

Women pioneers of Essay Filmmaking

A free event looking back at the origins of ‘essay filmmaking’ – starting with pioneering works by women filmmakers:

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=41790

The Dream
1987 | 45’ | Mohammad Malas

Screening courtesy of

Join us this evening for a free programme of films celebrating Palestinian resistance.

Full details and programme:

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=41671

Battle of Algiers, screening as part of our ongoing Afterimage series