FESTIVAL
 
24-29 March 2015, Birkbeck Cinema and ICA Cinema

Programme introduction EFF 2015

This inaugural edition of Birkbeck’s Essay Film Festival featured a varied programme of screenings, discussions and special guests.

Featured artists will include Thom Andersen, Esfir Shub, The Otolith Group, Peter von Bagh, and Constanze Ruhm. 

For this first edition, there will be a strong emphasis on found footage and the compilation film, as well as recent essay films from around the world.

As part of the Essay Film Festival, the ICA will be showing a series of works by major practitioners of the essay film. These will include a tribute to Peter von Bagh, with a programme featuring Helsinki, Forever (2008) and Remembrance (2014); an evening devoted to The Otolith Group including In the Year of the Quiet Sun (2013); a rare screening of the Iranian collective film Profession Documentarist (2014); and several works by Thom Andersen, including a new version of Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), and the UK premiere of his latest film, The Thoughts That Once We Had (2015). 

At Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image there will be daytime screenings and discussion events, including a conference on “Why the Essay Film Now?”; a day of screenings devoted to Esfir Shub; masterclasses by Constanze Ruhm and Thom Andersen; and a closing programme of contemporary films featuring work from Portugal, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the USA.