Special Events

programmes for special events

Are you looking for something that little bit different to delight your members? Want to mark an anniversary, stage an event for a town festival or just try something different? This page offers a few ideas:

MUSIC

James Harpham - the hit of the 2008 South West Spring Viewings - a well respected pianist / composer who has scored music for feature films and adverts now travels the country performing live music to classic silent movies, for festivals and film societies. He blends classical and contemporaneous tunes with original compositions, performed live with drama, wit and panache, to perfectly compliment silent classics. Below is a list of films he can provide an original score for. Oscar Stringer of Film@ThePound ( Corsham Film Society) highly recommends him for festivals or during your season. He has been the highlight and grand finale of their festival in Corsham for three years.

FULL FEATURES:

• Our Hospitality (Keaton) 74mins
• Safety Last (Harold Lloyd) 73mins
• Sunrise (Murnau) 91 mins
• Steamboat Bill Jnr (Keaton) 75 mins or so
• The General (Keaton) 75 mins or so

MEDIUM LENGTH FEATURE:

• A Girl in Every Port (Howard Hawks) 62 mins
• Sherlock Jnr (Keaton) 45 mins

SHORTS:

• One Week (Keaton) 20 mins
• Never Weaken (Lloyd) 24 mins
• Lizzies of the Field (Sennett) 10 mins

If you would like to contact James to discuss his availability his email is harphammusic@hotmail.com

Check out his website at www.jamesharpham.co.uk

A Three-part Event:

• The Seashell and the Clergyman with live accompaniment by Minima. This is arguably the first example of Surrealist cinema. Made in 1927, Germaine Dulac's dark, erotically-charged film is an hallucinatory dream-logic story of tormented desire, guilt and conflict. With daring imagery, startling effects and editing, feminist undertones and a sense of the absurd, it was banned by the British Board of Film Censors with the words: 'This film is so cryptic as to be almost meaningless. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.'
  Minima's new, uncompromising soundtrack strikes up an unexpected relationship with the film. The line-up of drums, bass, guitar and cello produces an intense atmosphere akin to Mogwai, with delicate, hypnotic rhythms invoking The Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The first performances were at The Shunt Vaults, London Bridge, in August 2006... live... with no backing track... no laptop... no safety net!
  Online film clips with Minima's soundtrack can be found here: http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=seashell+minima&page=1&so=2
• Symphonie diagonale - Minima also perform to the German short Symphonie diagonale, made in 1924, often cited as the definitive early experimental animation.
• The Invisible Theatre of Antonin Artaud - was the talkie the death of film? Antonin Artaud, author of the scenario of The Seashell and the Clergyman and at that time a famous film actor, thought so. Through voice synchronisation, he feared that film's visual storytelling would be reduced to a merely two-dimensional psychological drama, as in the theatre which he despised. But the voice itself, for Artaud, could be its own theatre - even when recorded - hovering in the air like a virus waiting to possess the listener's body. A collage of extracts from Artaud's letters, film reviews, replies to fanzine questions, and sounds from the advent of the talkies, The Invisible Theatre of Antonin Artaud is an auditory hallucination of a cinema of breath, its lungs the projector. Presented by Mischa Twitchin who is a founder-member of the performance collective Shunt (www.shunt.co.uk/). In addition, beside work as a lecturer at Goldsmiths College and as a freelance lighting designer, he also creates his own performance pieces.

Programme

1. Minima: Symphonie diagonal 15 mins
2. Mischa Twitchin: The Invisible Theatre of Antonin Artaud 25 mins
3. Minima: The Seashell and the Clergyman 45 mins

Total: 85 mins Price: £300 including films and musicians

Contact: minimaband@googlemail.com or Alex Hogg on 07774 026 049

SCREEN GEMS a unique and magical show

combining the movie world with that of movie music. So often it is the effective use of music that elevates a film into the unforgettable.

Devised, arranged and performed by pianist/singer Carol Anne Wells. Carol studied at the Royal College of Music, where and was official Opera School accompanist 1983-1988. She has featured on BBC Radio, and British and American Television.

This programme will take you from the era of silent movies to the toe tapping rhythms of Gershwin, Porter and Kern musicals, the enchanting world of Disney, the epic grandeur of Gone With the Wind, Exodus, and Dr Zhivago, the pianistic virtuosity heard in Brief Encounter, Dangerous Moonlight and Shine, sheer romance with Doris Day, Chopin, favourites as heard in A Song to Remember, and the haunting themes of Elvira Madigan, Ghost, Titanic and Michael Nyman’s Piano. Due to its versatility, this programme can be adapted to fit a specific period or genre of film. Contact Carol on 01322 447705 or anne@pemberley17.wanadoo.co.uk

THEMES

Artists & Icons

looks at the relationship between cinema and iconic personalities.

The release of Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno gives us an opportunity to look again at cinema’s relationship with figures in the public eye, from actors to artists, sporting stars to superheroes.

Artists & Icons features a range of work which illuminate the intimate relationship between artists and icons.

• Rose Hobart, Joseph Cornell, USA, 1936, 17min - a love poem to a forgotten film actress by American Surrealist Joseph Cornell.
• Technology Transformation: Wonder Woman Dara Birnbaum, USA, 1978-79, 7min - a playful study of the transformations of wonder woman
• Soft Ticket Lewis Klahr, USA, 2004, 9min - a nostalgic celebration of sporting heroes
• Mirror Keith Sanborn, USA, 1999, 6min - an ecstatic merging of Joan of Arc with Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz
• Meeting of Two Queens Cecilia Barriga, Spain, 1991, 14min - a found footage romance between Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich
• Bufferin Andy Warhol, USA, 1966, 33min - a rare showing of one of Warhol’s most celebrated films, an intense portrait of underground legend Gerald Malanga.

Running time: 86min [approx.] Format: BetaSP compilation + BUFFERIN on 16mm Terms: 35% against £100 MG Artists & Icons is available for booking from the ICO from mid-October 2006. Contact for Becky Clarke on 0207 636 7120 or beckyc@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk. The still is from 'Mirror'.

The Hitchcock Locations Walk

Sandra Shevey leads this walk round London locations used by Alfred Hitchcock every Monday at 11 am. It lasts three hours and costs fifteen pounds excluding the necessary travelcard.  The walk visits sites all over London either associated with Hitchcock or used by him in his films including The Man Who Knew Too Much (l956), The Paradine Case, Foreign Correspondent, Frenzy, and Sabotage. In the course of the walk Sandra talks about having met Hitchcock, whom she interviewed in Hollywood in l972. You must book ahead on (020)7-286-5647 or e-mail sandra_shevey@yahoo.com Take a look at her Hitchcock site.

Sandra Shevey also runs weekly walks on John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe, and has written biographies of both. `The Other Side of Lennon` runs on Saturdays at 2pm for 3 hrs and costs fifteen pounds excluding travelcard. `The Marilyn Scandal1` (London) runs on Sundays at 2pm for 3 hrs and costs fifteen pounds. Both walks must be booked ahead (see above). She also run a series of street market walks, including the 300-year-old gipsy horse market; the Petticoat Lane Sunday market; the Whitechapel East End market; and the Bell and Church Streets antique markets. They cost ten pounds. Details on request.

Sandra is also available for talks.  In addition to the Hitchcock Locations lecture, she can also lecture on 70s Hollywood (using extracts from hervast collection of audio megastar interviews).  And lastly, she also does 40s/50s Hollywood, with a view to discussing cultural subversion of the major Hollywood studios and using an exclusive collection of off-camera set stills of some of the big stars in conjunction. She will travel anywhere provided that expenses are advanced. Her fees are negotiable but start at five hundred pounds paid in advance or on the day.

YOUNG PEOPLE

First Light

fund and inspire the making of short films by young people, reflecting the diversity of their lives.

"We have enabled almost 7,000 young people between the ages of five and 18 to write, act, shoot and produce over 450 films. Working with filmmakers and organisations, First Light films cover many topics and genres, and make use of accessible digital film technology." They are keen to promote and display their quarterly Newsletter – targeted both at adults that work with young filmmakers and at the young under-18 year old filmmakers themselves.  If you have any screenings for young people planned (whether as part of your film society programme or not) take a look at www.firstlightmovies.com and especially at the materials they have on offer including bright pdf format newsletters. Contact Sam Plester at First Light Email: sam@firstlightmovies.com Tel: 0121 693 2095 Fax: 0121 693 2096 First Light, Progress Works, Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, B9 4AL

picture courtesy of image.net