The Beyond Film Programme
Beyond Film Festival: A visual journey into the imagination
A festival for Durham celebrating the best of artists' film from across the world
GALA, STUDIO- Saturday 22nd at 10am- Filmbee Workshop
Working in red light, workshop participants will be shown various ways of getting images on to 16mm celluloid with and without a camera, followed by home processing the results. The workshop will be followed by a screening of the work produced.
Ingenious experimental filmmakers scattered across Cinema's rich history have taken the very material of film as their medium, scratching, drawing and printing directly onto celluloid, instead of using the camera as an eye onto the world.
Filmbee's workshop investigates a few of these truly experimental film techniques over 6 intensive hours, in a home made darkroom. Home processing, contact printing and moving photograms, lens-less animation and scratching on film will be only some of the tricks you will learn. The films made during the workshop will be shown at the evening screening in the Gala.
Max participants: 6 - book now to avoid disappointment.
THE GATES- Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd, all day- Bread Stories: Palestine and Israel
Bread Stories is an interactive documentary installation by Tina Gharavi about two bakers, Danny and Khalid living on each side of the Wall of Separation. As part of the installation a suspended screen transects the centre of a large darkened room. On either side of the screen is the image of a bakery; one in Israel and one in Palestine. These tell the stories of Danny and Khalid. In order for the viewer to see the stories they must move between sides of the screen, movement activates the film. Both sides must be considered, yet only one screen can be seen at a time. The installation documentary is a unique method of telling stories that cross the divide. The project invites the viewer to engage with human stories of this resonant conflict and to keep an open mind about life on both sides of the Wall of Separation.
DLI MUSEUM AND DURHAM ART GALLERY-Saturday 22nd November & Sunday 23rd November- Meloni Poole INT: Underground: Day Night.
Day Night is film work made in response to the closure of Annesley Bentinck Mine in Nottingham in 2000. The work consists of underground footage travelling to the coal face and back. The resulting work is like being inside a monster - atmospheric, ghostly and out of this world. Meloni Poole is a Sheffield based artist who has written and directed several films for Channel 4 and made a series of installation pieces for galleries. Her work often explores harsh the realities of coal-mining.
GALA, BLUE ROOM-Saturday 22nd at 12pm- The Artists Cinema (12A) 30 mins
A rare chance to see a collection of short films from some of the world's leading artists that serves as a great introduction for those new to artists' film. They are: He who laughs last laughs longest (Phil Collins), Guest of Honor (Miguel Calderón), The Anthem (Apichatpong Weerasethakul), Special Afflictions by Roy Harryhozen (Bonnie Camplin) and Presto- Perfect Sound (Manon de Boer). A real treat for both cinema and art lovers.
GALA, BLUE ROOM-Saturday 22nd at 2pm- Syndromes and a Century (15) 105 mins, Thailand
Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Starring: Arkanae Cherkum, Jaruchi Imamarum
This surreal tale of tangled human relationships begins with a look at the faltering love life of a demure young female doctor at a remote Thai hospital. The film then explores alternative realities, unrealities and surrealities. Given the challenges that it poses Syndromes and a Century is an exceptionally easy and pleasurable watch, with plenty of humour and beautifully considered cinematography.
TOWN HALL-Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd, 4pm- 10pm- CIRCA
The work presented is the first UK screening of the AV installation piece 'Stadtplan', part of a new series of work created by North East artists Sam Watson and Michael Gardiner during a recent residency in Berlin. The work is an exploration into the ideas and realities concerning urbanism in contemporary culture.
'Stadtplan' deals with a variety of utopian ideas with regard to mega cities such as Berlin. Focusing on why tourists and potential residents are drawn from all over the World to a city that is still dreaming of, and still rapidly making changes towards a bright and commercially viable future. The project lays emphasis on the fact that as the city's aspirations and desired clientele change so does its urban landscape.
GALA, BLUE ROOM- Saturday 22nd at 4pm- Marcus Coates
Marcus Coates has developed an international reputation for an ongoing series of performances and Shamanic rituals made into films and photographs that recall the animal cults of pre-modern societies. Whether dressed as a stag at a gathering of the baffled tenants of a condemned Liverpool tower block or training people to mimic the dawn chorus, Coates' work reconsiders the spiritual roles of animals and nature in postmodern society. Through a combination of his earnestness as a Shaman, the absurdity of the Shamanic ritual in a contemporary setting, and his deadpan documentary style Coates inadvertently exposes class structures and calls into question the need for a reconnection with our origins.
During this programme Marcus will talk about his work and in particular his influences and the process of making artists films and videos. Following the talk Workplace will screen a selection of Marcus' recent films and videos.
GALA BLUE ROOM-Saturday 22nd at 6pm- Nick Cope
Journeys in Film
A retrospective of past and current film and video works by Nick Cope. From Super 8 and Scratch video in the 1980s via live music 'rave' visuals in the 90s to electroacoustic collaborations and travels to Tibet and China in more recent years, Nick will be drawing on twenty three years of experimental and creative film making for this screening.
After Graduating in 1986 from Sheffield Hallam University Nick worked freelance in film and video production with a particular emphasis on music and moving image work, collaborating with Cabaret Voltaire, the Butthole Surfers, O Yuki Conjugate and Electribe 101 amongst others.
GALA, BLUE ROOM-Saturday 22nd at 8pm- Star and Shadow Programme
Annabel Nicholson: Slides, 11min
Lis Rhodes: Dresden Dynamo, 5mins
Stan Brakhage: Moth Light, 4mins
Guy Sherwin: At the Academy, 5mins.
Margaret Tait: Colour Poem, 12mins.
John Smith: Om, 4mins.
Robert Breer: TZ, 8mins
Experimental cinema has run in currents throughout the history of film. In fact one could describe most cinema as experimental from the late 1890's up to the late 1910's, when what we consider as the classical narractive 'movie' became the norm. The 1920's felt a major resurgence in avant-gardde cinema amongst the Surrealists (Bunuel & Dali) and the Russian Formalists (Eisenstein) but the period our programme focuses on is the end of the 60's and the 1970's - a period of counter-cultural, alternative film-making. Some filmmakers were politically opposed to traditional 'Hollywood' narrative, production and exhibition structures, and interested in pushing the self-reflexive form of Godard even further by making their whole film about the material itself. The artist-run London Film Co-op became a hub for this type of activity in the 1970's, and three of the films in Part 1 were made there.
Part 1 - the screening opens with the films made during the Filmbee workshop which are followed by Annabel Nicholson's 'Slides', Lis Rhodes 'Dresden Dynamo' and Guy Sherwin's 'At the Academy.' These films redirecting attention to film's physical form through appying unusual material to the surface of the celluloid and playing with its depths of illuision. Stan Brakhage is often referred to as the Godfather of experimental cinema, and certainly his output was phenomenal. His ambition was to create an entirely new language with cinema, which touched people on a more psychic, subconscious level, stirring up inner feelings and thoughts about the major themes of life, death, love and faith. Mothlight reveals his poetic interest in materialist film, made from moth wings stuck on film and optically printed.
Part 2 starts with Margaret Tait's experiment with found footage, dyes and other techniques that emphasise a tactile approach to film that one would normally find in painting, stiill photography or glass. John Smith's 'Om' is a film about haircuts, clothes and image/sound relationships. Robert Breer's film work mixes animation, photography and found imagery in an anarchic and humourous clash of constantly changing imagery, colour and form, the surreal results of which chime with the randomness of human thought patterns. Finally, the elegant Eames film 'Powers of Ten' summarises the inspiration for all artists starting at the macrocosmic and working downwards.
GALA, STUDIO- Sunday 23rd at 2pm- Star and Shadow Panel discussion
Star and Shadow leads a panel discussion with invited guests Rebecca Shatwell, Director of the AV festival; George Clark, freelance curator and developer of the Curatorial Resource for Artists' Moving Image - www.crami.org.uk; Michelle Hirshorn, artist film curator and Mat Fleming, experimental filmmaker and co-founder of Star and Shadow Cinema. Each guest will present a 5minute artist's film or clip of their choice, explaining the reasons for their selection and offering unusual and interesting insights into the work of their chosen artist. The conversation will then be opened to the floor to discuss the how's, why's and wherefor's of current artist media and moving image work.
GALA, BLUE ROOM-Sunday 23rd at 2pm- Open Call Submissions
The best of our open call submissions will be screened in a special programme in Gala's Blue Room. Films were submitted in three categories; young people, recent graduates and professional artists. All open call submissions can be seen in the mobile cinema in Millennium Place.
GALA, BLUE ROOM-Sunday 23rd at 4pm- Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (PG) 95 mins. Dir. Douglas Gordon, Phillipe Parreno, 2006.
This groundbreaking film functions both as a documentary and an art installation. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait follows Zinedine Zidane during one full length football game (Real Madrid vs Villareal, April 23rd 2005). Seventeen cameras followed Zidane during this game focusing on his every move. The footage is accompanied by excerpts from recorded interviews with Zidane which are focused solely on his attitude towards the beautiful game. The result is a film so hypnotic and absorbing that you'll feel a part of the action. An outstanding soundtrack by Mogwai perfectly compliments the images on the screen to produce a spectacular visual observation unlike other documentary.
GALA, BLUE ROOM- Sunday 23rd at 6pm- ICO Essentials: Dreams (15) 90 mins
Cinema has flirted with the fantastic since its origins, but the most potent and penetrating explorations of the unfathomable world of the unconscious can be found in artists' work. Essentials: Dreams collects together the mythic, the nightmarish and the psychedelic to present pioneering artists' wondrous visions, revealing cinema in all its magical intensity. Films are; Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali), Les Jeux des Anges (Walerian Borowczyk), Asparagus (Suzan Pitt), Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svakmajer) and Our Lady of the Spheres (Lawrence Jordan).
GALA, BLUE ROOM- Sunday 23rd at 8pm- Workplace Gallery Curated Programme
Workplace Gallery is a commercial gallery run by artists Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow. They represent a portfolio of emerging and established artists. For more information please visit: http://www.workplacegallery.co.uk/
This evening they present a curated show reel of artists film and video including works by represented gallery artists, recent graduates from the region, and invited national and international artists. Highlights include: the premier of the first film work by Joe Clark made during a recent residency in Morocco in which still images of both natural and man made light sources are animated together to create a journey through the Moroccan landscape; ‘Pizza Shop Dance' by Sophie Lisa Beresford; ‘The Inspector' by Swedish Cecilia Stenbom, in which the artist merges her fantasy of being an FBI agent with the script from a UK TV series about animal welfare; ‘It's not the end of the world' by Darren Banks that uses existing footage from disaster movies and world cinema to confront with a new endgame scenario; and the first collaborative film work by Laura and Rachel Lancaster that takes us on a personal journey of nostalgia for times gone by.
MILLENNIUM PLACE- Necklace Park
During the festival films from the Necklace Park project will be screened in a special outdoor projection in Millennium Place. The Mapping the Necklace project aimed to show how involving local people in designing and representing their own green spaces and urban/rural landscape could create a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution to traditional local authority-run parks. During the project 20 films were produced by local people.
Gala Box Office Info
Tickets for all Gala shows are available at the Box Office. All tickets, including concessions, are £2. Why not take advantage of our special offer and buy 5 tickets for £5. Ring 0191 332 4041 or visit http://www.galadurham.co.uk/ to book tickets.
DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, Aykley Heads, Durham
0191 384 2214 / www.durham.gov.uk/dli
Open daily 10am-4pm
Admission charges apply
Adult £3.25, Concession £2.15 Child (5-16 yrs) £1.35 (under 5yrs free)
Family Ticket £7.50
All events in Millennium Place, Town Hall and the Gates are free.
