Mirror Speech Screening Series

To coincide with Gail Pickering’s exhibition Mirror Speech (31Oct-11 Jan), BALTIC and the Research Centre in Film and Digital Media at Newcastle University invite you to a series of film screenings exploring French society, politics and representation in the 1960s and 1970s. Gail Pickering's exhibition has developed following her own research into an experimental form of community television and broadcasting project that took place in Villeneuve France, for a brief period in the early 1970s. The first of these events will involve Marin Karmitz’s Camarades (1970), which dramatises the struggle of a Leftist militant working in a suburban Parisian factory. The relationship between individual and collective responsibility will be a central concern here, alongside themes of political engagement, representation and historical accuracy. The second film of the series will be Jean-Luc Godard’s Tout va bien (1972), one of the director’s later experiments with the DzigaVertov Group. Appropriating formal techniques from Bertolt Brecht, Godard examines, in typically incisive fashion, the often contradictory logic of class struggle in France in the aftermath of May ‘68. Finally, we will screen Chris Marker’s À bientôt, j'espère (1968) and Puisqu'on vous dit que c'est possible (1973), two short films which, in their own way, each attempt to create a revolutionary cinema that did not simply reinscribe the relations of capitalist domination. Screenings will take place at Side Cinema and will be introduced by a specialist in the area. There will also be the opportunity to discuss your reaction to the films after each screening.

 All films will include English subtitles.

 Dates

 Camarades (Karmitz 1970, 80 mins.), Friday Nov 28, 7:30. Introduction and post-screening discussion led by Dr. Mani Sharpe (Newcastle University) 

 Tout va bien (Godard 1972, 90 mins.), Friday Dec 19, 7:30. Introduction and post-screening discussion led by Dr. Steve Cannon (Sunderland University)  

 À bientôt, j'espère (Marker 1968, 45 mins.) and Puisqu'on vous dit que c'est possible (Marker 1973, 45 mins.), Friday Jan 9, 7:30. Introduction and post-screening discussion led by Prof. Max Silverman (Leeds University)