Produced for Sight & Sound magazine’s international poll of the greatest films ever made, this video adapts Nicole Brenez’ argument for the poll to give greater consideration to political films, as well as to the politics of filmmaking.
This website is an archive. Please visit www.ica.art for current listings.
Chloé Galibert-Laîné, My Crush Was a Superstar, 2017
Essay Film Festival 2017: Critique, Protest, Activism and the Video Essay, a lecture-performance by Kevin B. Lee
30 Mar 2017
Our present social and political environment begs a moment of urgent reckoning for the audiovisual essay, whether it is practiced by artists, scholars, or everyday video-makers: how can or should it address the current crises facing the world? Kevin B. Lee's work has pondered this question in the past through video essays on filmic forms of social protest and dissent, including with Nicole Brenez on The Hour of the Furnaces (2012), in The Essay Film: Some Thoughts of Discontent (2013) and Real Film Radicals (2013).
These earlier videos explored films and media artefacts made by other creators. But at what point do audiovisual studies of works of activism become activist works in their own right? Especially when one important dimension of the video essay is to uphold a critical distance from its subject? How do criticism and activism co-exist, and possibly inform and nurture the other? In this event, Lee explores these questions through screening and discussing his and other recent works that engage with a social and political consciousness.
With the support of the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading, and the Goethe-Institut, London.
Programme
-
Sight & Sound Film Poll: Nicole Brenez on The Hour of the Furnaces, Kevin B. Lee, 2012, digital video, 8 minutes
-
Real Film Radicals, Kevin B. Lee, 2013, digital video, 6 minutes
-
State of Emergence: The Wall, Anti Banality Union, 2016, digital video, 3 minutes
-
Snake Oil for N-----town Fever, Steven Boone, 2016, digital video, 10 minutes
-
Problems with the Gendered POV Shot in Lilya 4-Ever, Kiera Sandusky, 2017, digital video, 6 minutes
-
My Crush Was a Superstar, Chloé Galibert-Laîné, 2017, digital video, 10 minutes
We are offering a special multibuy offer for Essay Film Festival 2017:
- if you purchase tickets for 3-4 screenings pay £9 (full price) / £7 (concessions) / £6 (ICA Members) per ticket
- If you purchase tickets for 5-6 screenings pay £8 (full price) / £6 (concessions) / £5 (ICA Members) per ticket
