Twitter Facebook

Tag: birkbeck

Focus on James Mason

by Billy Stanton Saturday 26th May saw a very special event at Birkbeck cinema: the launch of Sarah Thomas’ BFI Film Stars book on James Mason, accompanied by papers from Thomas and Adrian Garvey, and a presentation of a rare 35mm print of Max Ophüls’ classic noir-melodrama The Reckless Moment (1949). In front of a room packed with Mason aficionados, Adrian Garvey put James Mason’s career in both the British and American film systems in context, placing him as a ‘homme fatale’ standing in contrast to the more familiar ‘femme fatale’ of noir studies. Garvey traced Mason’s history from bit-part tough in Gainsborough melodramas to…

Read more

Ndumu: The Story of Crocodile Survival in South Africa

by Billy Stanton On Friday 25th May Dr. Simon Pooley introduced the first UK screening of Ndumu: The Story of Crocodile Survival in South Africa, a rare documentary produced for South African television around the time of its inception in 1976, and featuring Dr Pooley’s father, Tony (A.C.) Pooley, at work in the titular crocodile conservation reservation in the region now known as KwaZulu-Natal. Ndumu works as a striking alternative to the traditional mode of nature documentary film-making; the familiar authoritative voice-over is not the sole provider of information and is indeed challenged by the voices of Tony Pooley, questioned by guests around a homely…

Read more

Final Words on Horace Ove– Laura Mulvey and Sasha Roseneil

Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted British-born black youths. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Tony, a bright school-leaver, son of West Indian immigrants, who finds himself torn between his parents' church-going conformity and his brother's Black Power militancy. As his initially high hopes are repeatedly dashed – he cannot find work anywhere, potential employers treat him with suspicion because of his colour – his sense of alienation grows. In a bid to find a sense of belonging, he joins his black friends who, estranged from their submissive parents, seek…

Read more

Introduction to Pressure: A Tribute to Horace Ove

Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted British-born black youths. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Tony, a bright school-leaver, son of West Indian immigrants, who finds himself torn between his parents' church-going conformity and his brother's Black Power militancy. As his initially high hopes are repeatedly dashed – he cannot find work anywhere, potential employers treat him with suspicion because of his colour – his sense of alienation grows. In a bid to find a sense of belonging, he joins his black friends who, estranged from their submissive parents, seek…

Read more

Talk: The Cultural Politics of Horace Ove

Hailed as Britain’s first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted British-born black youths. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Tony, a bright school-leaver, son of West Indian immigrants, who finds himself torn between his parents’ church-going conformity and his brother’s Black Power militancy. As his initially high hopes are repeatedly dashed – he cannot find work anywhere, potential employers treat him with suspicion because of his colour – his sense of alienation grows. In a bid to find a sense of belonging, he joins his black friends who, estranged from their submissive parents, seek…

Read more

Talk: Horace Ove: Documentary Filmmaker

Horace Ove is a Trinidadian-born British filmmaker, painter and writer and one of the leading black independent film-makers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. Ove’s first film, Pressure, which tells the story of a London teenager who joins the Black Power movement in 1970’s, was banned for two years by its own backers, the British Film Institute (BFI). Other works include the 1978 documentary The Skateboard Kings, about pioneering Californian skateboarders Tony Alva and Stacey Peralta. Ove’s 1986 film, Playing Away starring Norman Beaton, is perhaps his most well-known work. The film centred around the residents of fictional British village Seddington, who invite…

Read more

Talk: Horace Ove and Television

Continuing with footage from the Horace Ove Symposium, this recording brings together contributions from Peter Ansorge (producer 'Empire Road') and Jim Hawkins (script-writer 'A Hole in Babylon'). This session is chaired and introduced by Janet McCabe. This session is built around two works by Horace Ove. The first work focuses on in this session is  A Hole in Babylon (1979) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id a piece made by Ove as part of the long-running anthology series A Play for Today. This can be watched in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NH7EUS9zFY. The second drama addresed is The Orchard House (1991) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/570201/index.html. This is a four part period drama produced for Channel…

Read more

Talk: The Cultural Politics of Horace Ove

With Julian Henriques, Robert Buckler and Laura Mulvey. Horace Ové was born in Belmont, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1939. He came to Britain in 1960 to study painting, photography and interior design. After working as a film extra in Rome, he returned to London to study at the London School of Film Technique. He began work on Man Out, a surreal film about a West Indian novelist who has a mental breakdown. The project was never completed, but in 1966 Ové directed The Art of the Needle, a short film for the Acupuncture Association. This was followed by another short, Baldwin's Nigger (1969), in…

Read more

SCI/FILM: Parapsychology and Ghost Hunting on TV

by Billy Stanton May 4th marked the final event in the ongoing Sci/Film series at Birkbeck Cinema before the beginning of a year-long sabbatical; for the discussion were present Prof. Christopher French (head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths) and Dr. Cecilia Sayad (Senior Lecturer, Film and Media, University of Kent), who has written at length on the subgenre of ghost-hunting television shows. In showing a full episode from season 3 of Most Haunted (filmed at the Schooner Hotel, and featuring long-since departed and disgraced medium Derek Acorah) in contast with clips from the (entirely fictional) Ghostwatch (1992) and the American series Paranormal State, what…

Read more

Cinematic richness of Belgium

by Vladimir Seput, M.A. Student On Wednesday night, the 21st of February, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image was once again filled with people. This time, BIMI hosted Belgian film lovers (and those who might become ones) who came to watch and listen about the latest trends in Belgian cinema in a special, introductory event to the programme, Focus on Belgian Cinema. With the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International and Flanders House, film critic and author Louis Danvers and Wouter Hessels, the film lecturer and cinema programmer at the Brussels Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound travelled across the Channel to give talks on the…

Read more