June/July 2012, The Screen Studies Conference
Diane, me & Natacha at the conference |
Well the conference was very good. Meeting a few old friends and making lots of new friends.
The theme of the conference was "Other Cinemas" meaning just about anything that wasn't mainstream. It covered a huge range of topics and we had to choose between up to 6 panels for every session. Not always an easy choice because there were often 2 or 3 that sounded interesting - and so it turned out, a lot that were very interesting.
The P&P panel on Sunday morning was very well attended with Charles Drazin talking about "The Ministry of Information and The 49th Parallel". The hoops that had to be jumped through to get 49P made and then why the government never directly sponsored another film during the war although they generally supported the idea of films being made.
Diane spoke about "The genesis of a propaganda assignment: A Matter of Life and Death (1946)". Talking about her further researches to do with the medical aspects of AMOLAD, identifying sources of information from Hungary, France, the UK and the USA that were used in the film, as well as the identification of the model for Conductor 71.
Then The Lovely Natacha spoke about "Michael Powell's experimental cinema", focussing on the more avant garde aspects of many of the films with examples like the whisky bottle sequence in SBR and Sister Ruth seeing red and then blacking out.
They were all pushed for time and there wasn't enough time for a long Q&A afterwards but various people discussed aspects of the papers with us all over the rest of the day.
Other topics of interest (to me at least) were State Sponsored Films (from Czechoslovakia (as was), India & Switzerland). Industrial & commercial films in the UK, Nigeria & the US. A panel of Film Stars from the early days. A plenary session on archive work being done in Austria, the US & Scotland (fascinating) and another plenary on home movies and locally made films acting as "islands of memory".
The good news is that some of these papers will be submitted to Screen for inclusion in the magazine.
Diane, Natacha & I being tourists |
Monday 2nd July; we played at being tourists for a while. I spent some time at the Glasgow Lighthouse - Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture, with a special focus on the work of Rennie Mackintosh. This afternoon we went to the Kelvingrove Museum as it was pouring with rain it was nice to get indoors. They have a good collection of Dutch, Italian & French paintings as well as the expected Scottish material and other museum stuff. They also have Dali's "Christ of Saint John on the Cross". An iconic image that I've seen many times in prints but it's so much better to see the real thing.
This evening we visited the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), a lovely place. They're showing IKWIG there next week - but we'll all have gone home by then. But we enjoyed seeing Emily Blunt in "Your Sister's Sister"
Tuesday 3rd July; another good day of being a tourist with visits to the Riverside Museum which features exhibitions on transport through the ages, especially in Glasgow. Examples of all sorts of vehicles, cars, push bikes, motor bikes, commercial vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, trams & trolley buses, steam locomotives, old underground trains etc. etc. They also have large sections on the history of shipbuilding on the Clyde and the history of some of the ships that were built there - including HMS Hood.
Out the back, moored on the Clyde, they have the 1896 sailing ship, the Glenlee. The last remaining tall ship built on the Clyde
Thence to see The Burrell Collection. It's a short way out of town, but well worth the trip if you're anywhere close to being in the area.
And then back into Glasgow to meet up with Lou Volpe of this parish & Tracy who joined us for a meal in a very nice Glasgow Italian restaurant.
But finally it came to be time to say our goodbyes. I'm off to catch a train back to London on the morrow
Tears were shed, it's always sad to have to leave. But we can now look forward to our next jolly adventure.
The only problem is that I seem to have lost my voice, maybe I left it in Glasgow :)
Probably too much talking
A few more pictures from the lovely Natacha
3 tourists exploring Glasgow: Diane, Natacha & Steve |
An "art installation" outside the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) |
Other P&P trips
