After the success of 2017's inaugural Tufnell Park Film Club Shorter Film Festival we've decided to do it again. We hope you can join us for a whole day of screenings, where each film is under an hour long. Here's what we've got in store...
12.30pm
The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S Porter, USA, 1903) - 12 mins
We begin with one of the earliest existing films in American cinema - one considered a milestone in filmmaking. Not only does The Great Train Robbery present the audience with an actual narrative story (gang robs train; gang pursued by posse) but it uses a number of then-unconventional techniques, including composite editing, on-location shooting (in New Jersey), and frequent camera movement. The film is one of the earliest to use the technique of cross-cutting, in which two scenes are shown to be occurring simultaneously but in different locations and some prints were also hand-coloured.
Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton, USA, 1924) - 45 mins
Buster Keaton's silent comedy classic concerns a mild-mannered film projectionist (Keaton) who longs to be a detective and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a love- rival for a crime he didn’t commit. We're still in the foothills of American cinema and already it's getting all self-reflective.
INTERMISSION - 1.30pm - 1.45pm
1.45pm
La souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, France, 1924) - 38 mins
Germaine Dermoz stars as the eponymous Madame Beudet: an intelligent woman trapped in a loveless marriage. Directed by pioneering avant-garde cinema director Germaine Dulac, this silent impressionist film is considered by many to be one of the first truly feminist films.
INTERMISSION - 2.30pm - 3.00pm
3.00pm
Meet Marlon Brando (David & Albert Maysles, USA, 1966) - 28 mins
Documentary film-makers the Maysles brothers turn their cameras on Marlon Brando - holed up in a New York hotel room on press junket duties for his forthcoming movie, Morituri. But as journalists troop dutifully in with their earnest questions about the film, they find Brando unwilling to talk about it. Instead, he is more interested in larking about and turning on the charm - especially evident when being interviewed by a former winner of the Miss USA competition. A candid glimpse of an off-duty icon.
Italianamerican (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1974) - 49 mins
Shot on 16mm film in the Manhattan apartment on Elizabeth Street where he grew up, ItalianAmerican is the record of a conversation between Scorsese and his parents, Charles and Catherine. Their convivial discussions cover life in Post-War Italy, the struggles of tenement life for Italian immigrants in New York City, and the Scorsese family recipe for meatball sauce.
INTERMISSION - 4.30pm - 4.45pm
4.45pm
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, USA, 1943) - 18 mins
A woman falls asleep and her dark inner desires play out on-screen as dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images, creative editing, distinct camera angles, and slow motion, this surrealist film depicts a world in which it is more and more difficult to catch reality.
Les bicyclettes de Belsize (Douglas Hickox, UK, 1968) - 29 mins
A musical love story set around the streets of Hampstead in which a young man falls for a model after crashing his bicycle into a billboard featuring her.
INTERMISSION - 5.35pm - 5.50pm
5.50pm
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (Jon Ronson, UK, 2008) - 48mins
Stanley Kubrick’s widow grants investigative journalist Jon Ronson access to Stanley Kubrick’s personal archive of over 1,000 boxes of meticulously organised movie-related materials. An eye-opening glance into the hidden workings of an obsessive genius.
INTERMISSION - 6.45pm - 7.00pm
7.00pm
Celluloid Jukebox (Various)
A selection of great music videos made by great movie directors. Featuring such talent as DA Pennebaker, Spike Lee, Derek Jarman, George Dunning, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme and Floria Sigismondi.
INTERMISSION - 7.45pm - 8.15pm
8.15pm
Momma Don’t Allow (Karel Reisz & Tony Richardson, UK, 1956) - 22 mins
Documentary about the Wood Green jazz scene of the mid-50s (stay with us) made by new wave / Kitchen Sink pioneers Karel Reisz (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) and Tony Richardson (A Taste of Honey).
Under Night Streets (Ralph Keene, UK, 1958) - 20 mins
Documentary film about the track workers and 'fluffers' (no, not those 'fluffers' - these are track cleaners) who maintain the London Underground system every night during the few hours when the trains are not running.
INTERMISSION - 9.15pm - 9.30pm
9.30pm
An Englishman Abroad (John Schlesinger, UK, 1983)
With Russian spies and the reheating of the Cold War once again in the news, we end on a topical note with Alan Bennett’s play based on the true story of a chance meeting in 1958 between actress Coral Browne and Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring who spied for the Soviet Union while an officer at MI6. Browne stars as herself and Alan Bates plays the charismatic Burgess.
FIN
