This is Now: film and video after punk (Part Two)
14 November 2015
For the second of our This is Now screening sessions, CCA hosts a day-long event including the programmes Entering the Dream Space, Home Taping, and Video Killed the Radio Star. An associated programme of talks situates the post-punk moment articulated by This is Now within the particular local context of Derry, Northern Ireland and Ireland, exploring the specific contributions made by film-makers from the region and the lasting legacy of the era. This is Now seeks to examine the period in the early eighties when new technologies allowed for a new approach within the punk movement.
Speaker information is available below the schedule and links to screening events one and three can be found here.
11am – Entering the Dream Space
Weaving together film and video, often utilising religious imagery and introducing colour effects and surface texture, filmmakers generated a new, vividly transcendental style by the end of the post-punk era. Key examples of this sensual, visually mature work are presented alongside other dynamic, hallucinogenic pieces that explore the dreamlike state.
The Technology of Souls, UK, 1981, dir. John Maybury, 11 min; In Excelsis Deo, UK, 1983, dir. Sophie Muller, 26 min; The Miracle of the Rose, UK, 1984, dir. Cerith Wyn Evans, 25 min; The Union Jacking Up, UK, 1985, dir. John Maybury, 18 min
12:30 – Home Taping
The mainstream media was treated like a giant library to be plundered for provocative play and subversion in the early 1980s. Whether filming their TV screen with a Super 8 camera or deftly copying tape-to-tape, artists grabbed and juxtaposed disparate material to disrupt the dominant ideologies of the age and create new visual music. The programme includes notable examples of the Scratch Video phenomenon.
The Attitude Assumed: Still Life With Still Born, UK, 1980, dir. Cerith Wyn Evans, 19 min; Skinheads and Roses, UK, 1983, dir. Jill Westwood, 7 min; Pop Dolphin, UK, c.1983, dir. Jeffrey Hinton, 23 min; Tilt, UK, 1984, dir. George Barber, 6 min; Branson, UK, 1983, dir. George Barber, 2 min; Blue Monday, UK, 1984, dir. Duvet Brothers, 4 min; The Commander in Chief, UK, 1984, dir. Gorilla Tapes, 4 min; Art of Noise: Legs, UK, 1985, dir. George Barber & George Snow, 6 min; Passion Triptych, UK, 1982, dir. Cordelia Swann, 4 min
1:45 – Break and lunch
2:00 – Derry Film and Video Workshop talk and screening
3:15 – Maeve Connolly talk
4pm – Vivienne Dick talk and screening of Red Moon Rising (2015)
4:45pm – Video Killed the Radio Star
Early independent video releases were the revolutionary, DIY antidote to a television system that was only just gearing up to a fourth channel. They bypassed censorship and provided a platform to the marginalised and unsanctioned. This eclectic selection includes a very rare John Smith title and punchy, stuttering Scratch Video works by The Duvet Brothers, Kim Flitcroft & Sandra Goldbacher, Gorilla Tapes and George Barber.
Echo and the Bunnymen: Shine So Hard, UK, 1981, dir. John Smith, 32 min; The Miners’ Campaign Tapes: The Lie Machine, UK, 1984, dir. Various, 16 min; The Greatest Hits of Scratch Video Volume 2, UK, 1984, dir. Various, 28 min
