The Lupino is a new, 62 seat, state-of-the-art cinema. It is named after the pioneering female actor and film director Ida Lupino, whose fame was found in Hollywood, but whose roots were in Kent. Following notable appearances in a number of British films she moved to the US in 1933, where she played tough, hard-bitten roles alongside the likes of Humphrey Bogart and John Mills, before going on to direct for TV, and for acclaimed films such as The Hitch-Hiker – the first woman to direct a film noir.
Over the weekend the Lupino Cinema programme includes screenings, and talks by leading film directors and artists.
Friday
18:00-19:00 John Smith, Horizon and Soft Work
Two of Smith’s recent films, Horizon (Five Pounds a Belgian) and its companion piece Soft Work (both 2012) will be looped back to back. Commissioned by Turner Contemporary, both films were shot on the coast near Margate.
Horizon (seamless loop, cycle 18 mins): Filmed in and around Margate on the English coast, this film consists of a series of identically composed images of views out to sea, recorded over several months in dramatically different weather conditions. Incorporating chance events that took place over the course of filming, the work stresses and contrasts changes in light, colour and movement, moving back and forth between documentary representation and near abstraction.
Soft Work (37 mins): Waiting by the sea with his camera ready for action, the artist complains about the weather and attempts to describe his intentions and working methods. Soft Work is a film about the making of a film, where the viewer can only imagine what that film might be. It was made spontaneously during the production of Horizon (Five Pounds a Belgian), a video installation commissioned by Turner Contemporary, Margate, and was first shown at Whitstable Biennale 2012.
19:00 Clio Barnard, The Arbor
Barnard’s first feature film focuses on Andrea Dunbar, a British playwright best known for Rita, Sue and Bob Too, an autobiographical drama about the sexual adventures of teenage girls living in a run-down part of Bradford, West Yorkshire. Barnard’s film focuses in particular on the playwright’s troubled relationship with her daughter Lorraine who was just ten when her mother died.
20.30 Jan Dunn, Gypo, with Director Jan Dunn
A BIFA award winning 2005 independent film written and directed by Jan Dunn, shot entirely in Thanet. Its story details the breakdown of a family in a small town in Britain, told in three narratives. Within a structured screenplay the dialogue throughout was improvised. The film is shown through the eyes of the three main characters and shows how the family falls apart under the strain of unexpected emotions. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Director Jan Dunn. “A stunning British debut.” Sunday Express
Saturday
14:00-15:00 John Smith, Horizon and Soft Work
Two of Smith’s recent films, Horizon (Five Pounds a Belgian) and its companion piece Soft Work (both 2012) will be played back to back. See previous entry for more information.
15:00-17:30 Selected by CUFF
Selection of student films, selected by local student filmmakers. Thanks to the many film and art related institutions in Canterbury, the city is home to a vibrant community of young and talented filmmakers. Student film crews are constantly creating new and innovative works which often go unseen by the public. Canterbury University Film Festival (CUFF) aims to provide a platform for these works to be viewed and appreciated. The best short films will be selected from students from the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and University for the Creative Arts and they will be screened at the festival.
17:30-18:30 An Introduction to Joachim Koester, by Sarah Martin
Sarah Martin, Head of Exhibitions at Turner Contemporary, presents an introduction to the work of Danish artist Joachim Koester. Working principally in film and video, Koester plays with the art of storytelling, taking the viewer on a journey to different times, places and states of consciousness. His current exhibition at Turner Contemporary – The Other Side of The Sky – weaves its way through hypnosis and hallucination to the psychedelic..
18:30-19:00 John Smith, Horizon
Smith’s recent film, Horizon will be screened, see previous entry for more information.
1900-21:30 Grant Gee, Innocence of Memories
Grant Gee’s latest film takes the Museum of Innocence as its subject, a museum in Istanbul which houses real objects that trace the fictional love affair described in the novel of the same name. Both are the creations of Nobel prize winner, Orhan Pamuk. In this feature length documentary essay, fact and fiction are artfully interwoven with the main characters – the city of Istanbul, the Museum of Innocence, and Orhan Pamuk himself, whose life and work have been indelibly influenced by the city he roams.
21:30 The Thing, presented by Peter Stanfield
Professor Peter Stanfield, Head of the School of Arts, presents John Carpenter’s cult classic, The Thing. Widely considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made, starring Kurt Russell and with a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, it’s the ultimate in alien terror.
“A peerless masterpiece of relentless suspense, retina-wrecking visual excess and outright, nihilistic terror.” Empire Magazine
Sunday
14:00-15:00 Tim Howle and Nick Cope, Various Screenings
Sonic artist Tim Howle, Professor in the School of Music and Fine Art, works collaboratively with Dr Nick Cope (Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China) to create works of Visual Music where the relationship between the visual and the audible components are equitable. This is not film music as such, but a hybridisation of techniques between sonic art and experimental video. The video aspect of the work in question is created by Dr Nick Cope and Tim Howle is the composer. Over the past 12 years they have created 6 works together.
We will be screening Open Circuits (2003), Son et Lumieres (2006), In Girum (layer 1) (2007) and Flags (2015).
15:00-17:30 CUFF
Selection of student films, selected by local student filmmakers. Thanks to the many film and art related institutions in Canterbury, the city is home to a vibrant community of young and talented filmmakers. Student film crews are constantly creating new and innovative works which often go unseen by the public. Canterbury University Film Festival (CUFF) aims to provide a platform for these works to be viewed and appreciated. The best short films will be selected from students from the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and University for the Creative Arts and they will be screened at the festival.
17:30-18:30 Circa69, Talk: Immersive Transmedia storytelling Lecture
A talk and Q&A with artist Simon Wilkinson about immersive, transmedia and multi-sensory storytelling with specific reference to the virtual reality work he has been doing since 2010. As virtual reality enters the mainstream in 2016 with the release of headsets such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, new forms of storytelling have begun to emerge to fit the new medium. Simon Wilkinson has, for the past six years, been experimenting with making immersive video and VR stories which encompass multiple platform, non-linear story lines and kinaesthetic effects.
18:30-19:30 Tim Howle, Talk: On making electroacoustic movies
Professor Tim Howle talks about how his collaboration, as a composer, with video artist Nick Cope. The two combine visual and sonic material, and have created a close working relationship. Many connections between the two media are forged pointing to a counterpoint that acts on many levels.
19:30-20:00 Alix Delmas, Lalala, presented by 51zero/voyager
Lalala is a cross-border collaboration by 51zero with French artist filmmaker Alix Delmas, who writes about this five minute looped film, ‘under a blazing table, in the verdant countryside, are hidden two children who wait calmly and endlessly for the tragedy to come to an end’.
51zero/festival takes place biennially, presenting a programme of international film, video and digital arts, screened in alternative venues, outdoor settings and gallery spaces, showcasing emerging and established artists exhibiting alongside students and graduates.
20:00 Guy Maddin, The Forbidden Room
Guy Maddin and co-director Evan Johnson’s grand ode to lost cinema is a delirious, deranged and exhilarating tribute to the glorious excesses of cinema’s forgotten past. The film is a romantic mystery comedy-drama, with stories within stories including a doomed submarine crew doubling the lifespan of their oxygen by eating flapjacks (because they contain air pockets); apprentice lumberjacks who set out to rescue the woman they love from bandits; and a moustache that seeks to comfort the widow of the man whose face it used to adorn.