Star and Shadow: Fishtank (1998) + Short Film: Sunday (2009)
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This double bill brings together works that explore the portrayal of everyday life, and of British people living outside of citycentres: in poor suburbs or in the countryside. They are made by two distinct British artists whose body of work also includes photography.

In unique and invigorating ways, both of these works confront received ideas regarding national identity as well as cinematic language.

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Fishtank (1998, Dir. Richard Billingham, 65 mins, English, UK)

In Fishtank, artist Richard Billingham films his own family, which lives in a council flat: he films his Dad's alcoholism, his Mum's obsessive smoking and his brother's frustrations hammered out on the Playstation.

Richard Billingham made this film following a book that he published in 1996, Ray's A Laugh, which contained photos of his family, and which was hailed as the photo book of the decade.

Anticipating Harmony Korine’s Julien Donkey-Boy by a year, the film is a similarly experimental and claustrophobic family portrait that ploughs the depths of domestic dysfunction to find unexpected humour, energy and warmth. Fishtank is a lo-fi video diary of life at close quarters, paying close attention to the textures of everyday life in order to challenge traditional notions of that most British of features: the nuclear family. This is a very rare screening for powerful and distinctive film.

"Dispassionately yet compassionately, Billingham's film registered the emotional territory of the flat and his family who lived there. He charted a pattern of pathos, despair and hope. Fishtank crafted a terrible beauty from the landscape of family life." - ARTANGEL

About Richard Billingham

A few facts about the artist Richard Billingham, director of the film:

- Richard Billingham is an artist working primarily in photography and film

- He originally studied painting at Sunderland University

- He collected photographs taken of his own family in an artist's photo book called Ray's a Laugh

- In 2001, he was nominated for the Turner Prize for his photography and video work

Artist quotes:

“It's not my intention to shock, to offend, sensationalise, be political or whatever; only to make work that is as spiritually meaningful as I can make it—whatever the medium.”

"It's your work that matters; you haven't got to bother what people think. You've just got to concentrate on your work and not be distracted, if you've got good work then you'll get recognised sooner or later, you just will, but you have to have strength in your own convictions".

Article

You can read a great article about Richard Billingham in a-n magazine here

+ Short Film: Sunday (2009, Dir. Duane Hopkins, 10 mins, English, UK)

SUNDAY is a series of portraits of rural British youth exploring the relationships between identity, psychology and environment. Each scene draws upon different ideas and approaches to filmmaking. Some are lyrical, some are anthropological and some dreamlike.

The work creates a sense of location at once eerie and yet familiar; a place where serenity and anxiety are equally present.

Artist quote:

“I think all of my work has a sensual element to it. That’s partly why I work with non actors. I’m not after an idea of naturalism; instead, there’s something which I find fascinating about faces, their bodies, their movements – about all the things that make them a real person. Within themselves is all of their experiences, all the things that they’ve been through. And I want to record that – to use the camera like a microscope. In a way I want to interrogate them… You have a different kind of psychological complexity which keeps you looking at the image, which unlocks all of the other things.” – DUANE HOPKINS

TICKETS

On the door: £5 / £3.50 (concessions)