Two film/conversation evenings in London on ESTATES and HIGH RISE LIFE
ESTATES
15 May 2012 / 19.00 / £4
BEAUTIFUL THING (Hettie MacDonald, 1996); ESTATE (Fugitive Images, forthcoming); MYTHS OF SOCIAL CAPITALISM, PART 1 (Rastko Novakovic, 2012); HEYGATE (Will Montgomery, 2010).
Frustrated with cliched and simplistic representations of council estates as “sink estates”? Come and join us on Tues 15th May when UCL Urban Lab Films and Passengerfilms will be at The Screen @ RADA for a collaborative night of films, art and conversation about ESTATES and the UK housing crisis.
Our feature film will be “Beautiful Thing” (1996), Hettie MacDonald and Jonathan Harvey’s tender ‘coming out’ story, in which Thamesmead, set against the blue skies of a hot summer, plays an important role. The soundtrack features tunes from Mama Cass Elliot and The Mamas and the Papas that you’ll no doubt be whistling on the way home. The film was widely acclaimed at the time of its release, winning awards at numerous festivals, including Paris Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival and GLAAD Media Awards. Author Jonathan Harvey will be present to introduce the film.
We’ll also be showing an extract from Fugitive Images film-in-the-making, “Estate”, a feature length documentary-fiction hybrid following the bulldozing of the Haggerston Estate, and the construction of replacement housing. Filmmakers Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Lasse Johansson will be present for Q&A.
Rastko Novakovic www.rastko.co.uk, moving image artist and film curator and Steven Ball http://www.steven-ball.net/ will present another film-in-progress, “Myths of Social Capitalism, Part 1”, recorded on London’s Heygate Estate, and critiquing its imminent demolition.
Poetry and sonic expert Will Montgomery (RHUL) will introduce his sound archiving project, “Heygate” (2010), recorded in and around the Heygate.
This is the sixth screening of a season by UCL Urban Lab Films and Passengerfilms on urban architectures.
Followed by Q&A with the artists, filmmakers and author of Beautiful Thing, Jonathan Harvey. Chair Ben Campkin (UCL Urban Laboratory).
HIGH RISE LIFE
17th May / 19.00 / £4
A UCL Urban Lab, Open City Docs Fest and LSE collaboration
HIGH RISE (Gabriel Mascaro, 2009); LIFT (Marc Isaacs, 2002).
Followed by a discussion with Marc Isaacs (Director, Lift), Luciana Martins (Birkbeck), Tom Cordell (Director, Utopia London) and Richard Baxter (QMUL). Chair Andrew Harris (UCL Urban Laboratory).
The Screen @ RADA / Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre / Malet Street / WC1E 7JN
Tickets available from April 10th at the RADA box office (+44 (0)20 7636 7076), online and at the door (first-come-first-served).
Further details:
www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab
http://www.facebook.com/events/356461197729585/
Urban Migration Films 