From dusk until 21:00 on Saturday and Sunday, four three screens will play host to a programme of silent works, from the very earliest cinema, to totally contemporary works. The screens will be sited: at: outside the Gulbenkian, outside Cornwallis North West, outside Senate, outside Registry, and screenings include:
Emrys Plant, I’ve heard rumours that will shake the dust
Saturday and Sunday
16:00-18:00- Registry screen
18:00-20:00- Cornwallis screen
20:00-22:00- Registry screen
There’s often something extraordinary that catches our ear in the most mundane conversations, and taken out of context the twist of a narrative can become something newly poetic. Plant’s projections of text play with cut-up conversations, and the context from which they were taken.
Hitchcock, Champagne (1928) and The Lodger (1927)
Champagne: Saturday 19:00- 22:00 Senate screen
The Lodger: Sunday 19:00- 20:30 Senate screen
Two early British silent films from Hitchcock. Champagne is a comedy, focusing on a young woman forced to get a job after her father tells her he has lost all his money. The Lodger is set in thick fog, and is about the hunt for a “Jack the Ripper” type of serial killer in London.
Buster Keaton, Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Saturday and Sunday 17:00- Senate screen
Full of elaborate stunts and effects, this is classic Buster Keaton, directing himself in a silent comedy including deadpan humor, frolicsome slapstick and many innovative technical accomplishments.
Harold Lloyd, Safety Last! (1923)
Saturday and Sunday 17:00-18:30- Senate screen
A 1923 romantic comedy silent film starring Harold Lloyd. It includes one of the most famous images from the silent film era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles from the outside of a skyscraper above moving traffic. The film was highly successful and critically hailed, and it cemented Lloyd’s status as a major figure in early motion pictures, and is viewed today as one of the great film comedies.
Jemima Brown, Screentests
Saturday and Sunday
17:00-18:00- Cornwallis screen
19:00-20:00- Registry screen
21:00-22:00- Cornwallis screen
Artist Jemima Brown’s life casts formed the basis for an extensive library of characters, becoming life sized dolls which were then animated using video footage of the artist’s eyes. The resulting video sequences became a way for the artist of testing out identities, of occupying fictional beings.
Screen Archive South East, The Canterbury Tour (circa 1923)
Saturday and Sunday
17:30-18:00- Senate screen
Sunday 20:30-22:00- Senate screen
‘The Canterbury Tour’ captures everyday life on Canterbury high street – a prosperous city – providing a fascinating snapshot of clothing, transport, shopping at the time. It also provides footage of buildings that were destroyed during the bombing raids of WWII and a thousand-year old cattle market (which has since closed). The filmmaker and date aren’t known, but the date is estimated at 1923.