During this summer
term we are holding a series of Tuesday evening lectures and screenings for the
Birkbeck MA in Film and Visual Media in the new Basement Lecture Theatre, 43
Gordon Square, London WC1. The opening of the new Lecture Theatre allows us to
invite other postgraduates from the School to the lectures and we would be
delighted if you were able to attend. We hope that the Tuesday evenings will
not only offer a stimulating and unusual series of lectures but that they will
also provide a chance for you to meet up with fellow students from the School's
other postgraduate courses.
We look forward to
seeing you on summer Tuesdays!
MA History of Film and Visual Media
Summer Term Lecture Series:
Tuesday, 29th April
to 1st July 2003, from 6.00 pm
Location: Basement
Lecture Theatre, 43 Gordon Square
During the summer
term, there will be a series of lectures on Tuesday evenings designed to expand
the range of subject areas covered by the course. The first three lectures will be about the representation of art
on British television and will be given by John Wyver, Director of
Illuminations and currently Visiting Professor in the School of History of Art,
Film and Visual Media. The rest of the lectures will concentrate on aspects of
world cinema, bringing in specialists to present key issues in contemporary
film culture through a film or topic of their choice.
The series will be
supported by a new collection of specially purchased videos and DVDs which will
be available to view in the Self-Access Centre. Most lectures will normally
last about 75 minutes; some may begin or be followed by screenings. Please note that the following programme is
subject to alteration.
Attendance at the
Tuesday lectures is mandatory for MA History of Film and Visual Media
students. If you are unable to attend
please will you notify the Course Director, Dr Mike Allen or the Course
Administrator, Penny Brown.
The first three screenings and discussions will be about the presentation of the visual arts on television, each focussed on a key film highlighting dominant approaches from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In part, the aim is to explore ideas of populism and popular culture in television against the background of thinking about the arts and broadcasting today.
From 1951 onwards,
John Read made an important series of documentary profiles of British modern
artists, including this one with Barbara Hepworth, filmed in her studio in St
Ives. The film, which remains surprising and moving, mixes what has come to
be regarded as a conventional
presentation of an artist's ideas and work with bolder, arguably modernist
strategies for showing Hepworth's sculptures.
One of the first film
documentaries to showcase younger, less established artists. Russell's
free-wheeling film showcases four of the key figures of British Pop just as
they were attracting critical acclaim and media attention. The film's playful
style locates the work in the popular culture of the day.
This 'Arena' film
embraces popular culture in a completely different manner to Russell's film,
and represents one of the earliest attempts to bring the interest (if not the analysis)
of cultural studies to television.
Tuesday, 20th May:
Lucia Nagib (Leverhulme Lecture): City of God: Perspectives on Brazilian
Contemporary Culture
Lucia Nagib is a film
critic and Associate Professor at the State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo,
currently based in the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media,
Birkbeck, as Leverhulme Visiting Professor.
She will analyse the interface between literature, music and film in
City of God, a recent international success for Brazillian cinema.
Rachel Moore is the
author of Savage Theory: Cinema as Modern
Magic and
is currently Visiting
Lecturer in the School of History of Art Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck. Using four films, Ousmane Sembene's Guelwaar (Senegal, 1992), Tomas Alea's Death Of a Bureaucrat (Cuba, 1966),
Abuladze's Repentance (SU,1987),
Oshima's Death By Hanging (Japan,
1968), she will argue that the period between burial and reburial exposes the
tension between history and mourning, as realised in the tension between the
person and the state. In both cases,
this space between is presented in the form most congenial to liminality, the
ironic.
Tuesday 27th May:
Screening: The Turning Gate (Hong
Sang su, Korea, 2002)
to follow Rachel
Moore’s talk and discussion.
Tuesday, 3rd June: Tony Raynes: The Far Eastern 'new wave': how do film festivals contribute to the critical reception and international distribution of new 'world' cinemas?
Tony Raynes is a
leading British film critic whose current interests include the new cinemas of
the Far East. He is a programmer for
the London Film Festival and writes regularly for Sight and Sound. He uses
his wide knowledge of international film festivals as critical forum and market
place to discuss the ways in which global cultures and world cinemas might, or
might not, meet.
Tuesday, 10th June:
To be announced.
Munni Kabir is a
documentary filmmaker/writer who has made several series for Channel Four on
Hindi cinema. She has published five
books on Indian film including Guru Dutt,
A life in Cinema (OUP, INDIA) and Bollywood,
the Indian Cinema Story (Channel 4 Books and PanMacmillan). She is
currently working on Channel Four's 2003 season of films Bollywood Celebs and is also a Governor of the BFI. Munni Kabir analyses the unique importance
of music and dance that has been at the heart of popular Hindi/Urdu cinema.
Tuesday 17th June:
Screening to follow Munni Kabir’s talk and lecture to be announced.
Tuesday, 24th June: Sheila Whitaker: The enigma of the New Iranian Cinema: women behind the camera in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Sheila Whitaker was
former Head of Programming at the National Film Theatre and Director of the
London Film Festival. She is co-editor (with Rose Isa) of Life and Art: the New
Iranian Cinema , (London: National Film Theatre, 1999).
Tuesday, 1st July:
Ian Christie: Russian Ark, and the
Mystery of the Missing Russian
Ian Christie places
Alexander Sokorov’s latest acclaimed film in its historical context. He is a Professor of Film and Media History
at Birkbeck and is at present researching the cinema of R W Paul supported by a
Paul Mellon Foundation Fellowship.
--
Administrator, MA History of Film and Visual Media
School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media
Birkbeck College, University of London
Room 205, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC 0PD
Tel: 0207 631 6112
Email: p.luker-brown@bbk.ac.uk