NOW BOOKING: Essay Film Festival Preludes 1-3
Ahead of their Essay Film Festival 2021, Birkbeck Institute Of The Moving Image (BIMI) hosts a trio of FREE online events to get your juices flowing (05-19 MAR).
By RADIANT CIRCUS // Twitter @radiantcircus | Instagram @radiantcircus
As the film calendar continues without the aid of functioning cinemas, we start to see an increasing number of film festivals looming on the digital horizon (we’ve listed 150+ in previous years but the pandemic is bound to reduce that count).
The Essay Film Festival has been running since 2015 and usually takes place at the end of March, but BIMI presents related content throughout the year. The festival is normally split between Birkbeck’s own cinema and the ICA, but this year looks destined to be online (the 2020 edition was cancelled for obvious reasons…).
Now, you might be asking yourself what an ‘essay film’ actually is…? BIMI describes essay films as:
“a hybrid form that brings together elements of documentary and experimental filmmaking into a highly personal and often politically engaged mode of expression.”
essayfilmfestival.com
If that leaves you still scratching your head, but you have seen and adored the autobiographical films of Agnès Varda, then you’re in the right ball park! A RADIANT CIRCUS favourite is THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS (2008), but feel free to take your own pick…
Ahead of this year’s Essay Film Festival (the dates of which aren’t clear right now, also for obvious reasons one presumes…), BIMI is presenting three free online ‘preludes’. There are two film screenings with discussions and a wider discussion of essay films themselves led by students of the form. Scroll down for details.
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Quick links to the venue/box office.
UNFINISHED DIARY aka Journal inachevé + Discussion
d. Marilú Mallet, 1986
Essay Film Festival 2021 Prelude 1: “Fifteen years after a battered wife (TANAKA Yuko) murders her abusive alcoholic husband, she returns home having served her time. But will the now-adult children she sought to protect with her crime welcome the reunion?”
“We will share the film for 24 hours, before inviting all those who register to join us for a conversation about the film and its political context.”
FUTURE – WORLD – EXV + Discussion
d. Wilfred Ukpong, 2019
Essay Film Festival 2021 Prelude 2: “Organised in collaboration with Autograph ABP we share a recent film by artist Wilfred Ukpong and invite you to join us in conversation with the artist.”
“We will share FUTURE – WORLD – EXV (2019) before holding a live discussion between Wilfred Ukpong, Karen Alexander and Mark Sealy.”
Practice Research Open Forum
Essay Film Festival 2021 Prelude 3: “As the third prelude to the 2021 Essay Film Festival, we are holding the second iteration of the Practice Research Open Forum: a student-led forum exploring essayistic forms and their relationship to academic research, social critique and artistic practice, held in collaboration with CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership.”
PREVIOUSLY ON RADIANT CIRCUS…
Online events at Birkbeck Institute Of The Moving Image (MAY to JUN 2021)
NOW BOOKING: Essay Film Festival (25 MAR to 03 APR)
NOW BOOKING: Birkbeck presents Sex & Syphilis At The Cinema
NOW BOOKING: BIMI presents THE SEVEN DEADLY DIGITAL SINS Panel Discussion
NOW BOOKING: ON THE EDGE OF THE FOLD at Rich Mix & Birkbeck Cinema
“How am I going to sell it?” RADIANT CIRCUS presents MATINEE (21 MAY)
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