Bowiefest!

This website is an archive. Please visit www.ica.art for current listings.

The UK's first film festival dedicated to the work of the legendary David Bowie. Bowie has been involved in films as long as he's been making music. To celebrate, we're showing the best of his celluloid appearances with three days of screenings, talks and Q&As.

We kick off the festival with an Opening Night Party which will include a rare screening of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – behind the scenes footage of the last ever Ziggy Stardust concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973. Friday and Saturday night screenings are followed by Bowie-themed DJing in the bar, come as your favourite Bowie persona!

Alongside the screenings, the festival hosts a conversation between Jeremy Deller and Alan Yentob on Yentob’s documentary Cracked Actor and a Q&A with director Nic Roeg on his spectacular film The Man Who Fell to Earth.

We talked to Bowiefest curator Oliver Harbottle, about how he and fellow Bowiefest curator Natasha Dack came up with the idea:

“2012 seemed like the right time to put Bowiefest on - Bowie's 65th birthday was in January, and this year is also the 40th anniversary of the release of the Ziggy Stardust album. He's still as relevant as ever though - it's been amazing watching the Olympics and seeing Bowie masks at the Opening Ceremony and hearing his music during the medal ceremonies.

We're both massive Bowie fans [Natasha's first memory was seeing him sing Heroes on the Marc Bolan show in 1977 on TV at her Nan's house, whilst Oli saw Labyrinth on his first ever trip to the cinema.] and we realised that there hadn't been a festival like this before. Whilst we had the idea a while back, we were both originally uncertain of the reception to it as neither of us had organised an event like this [Natasha is a film producer and Oli a film distributor], but everyone has really responded to it and got behind it.

Approaching people like Alan Yentob, Nic Roeg and Jeremy Deller, who all agreed instantly to take part has been an amazing feeling. Like David Bowie, the ICA has a ground-breaking reputation, so it feels like a perfect fit for the venue to host the event.”

Bowiefest runs from 31 August – 2 September.