Annexinema
In April 2011 I worked with the lovely Emily Wilczek, who co-organises the not-for-profit arts organisation Annexinema. As part of the "Spaces of Alterity: Conceptualising Counter-Hegemonic Sites, Practices and Narratives" conference at the University of Nottingham (which I co-organised with Dr Michael Eades and Dr Adity Singh), Annexinema curated a fantastic evening of short films "Alternative Realities and Spatial Explorations." Many of the conference delegates attended, and we were delighted that China Miéville joined us at One Thorsby Street to read from Embassytown (just before it was published).
See below for the evening's programme:
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Part 1 Miners’ Campaign Tapes Project Not Just Tea and Sandwiches UK, 1984, video, 12mins Media coverage of the Miners Strike’ in 1984-85 was often felt to be misrepresentative. In response, several film making collectives from around the UK made and distributed short films on VHS tapes presenting an alternative view of the events, and fostering solidarity. This is the story of women’s involvement in the strike. Office of Community Sousveillance PCSO Watch UK, 2011, video, 6mins [this information is classified] Yelena Popova Unnamed UK, 2011, video, 10mins A personal documentary telling the story of a secret town in Russia and the artist’s nationalisation in the UK. Oneohtrix Point Never Nobody Here USA, 2009 video, 2mins Stephen Connolly Más Se Perdió (We Lost More) UK/Cuba, 2008, 16mm, 14mins Más Se Perdió structurally unites a series of historical and cultural references in contemporary Havana, Cuba. A variety of cinematographic approaches are used to explore the spaces of the derelict National School of Ballet, to document young athletes at an outdoor stadium, and to record a street scene with construction workers, the latter in reference to Chris Marker’s film Letter from Siberia. Each place maintains some relationship to notions of utopia; however, the autonomous soundscape of the film is suggestive of underlying conflicts contained within these visions.
Part 2 China Miéville reading from Embassytown Sun Ra Space is the Place USA, 1972, video, 11mins An extract from Sun Ra’s vision of alter-destiny. Uriel Orlow Yellow Limbo Egypt/UK, 2011, video, 14mins Yellow Limbo interleaves vintage photographs and Super8 film shot by crewmembers of 14 cargo ships stranded in the Suez Canal for 8 years with the artist’s own recent footage on location. The title relates to an incident that unfolded during the outbreak of the Six Day War, in 1967 between Israel and Egypt. As a result of heavy artillery fire and sunken trawlers at either end of the Suez Canal, 14 cargo ships of various nationalities were stranded for eight years in the Great Bitter Lake, a large body of water at the canal’s midpoint where ships pass one another before re-entering the one-way traffic. While stranded, the cold-war political allegiances of the multi-national crews were dissolved and gave way to a form of communal survival and the establishment of a social system that mirrored the evolution of civilisation in microcosm. The ships’ 1968 onboard Olympic Games converted what Noam Chomsky has referred to as the ‘irrational jingoism’ of the official Olympics into a pan- national gesture of resilient, playful solidarity. Neil Bartlett and Stuart Marshall Pedagogue UK, 1988, video, 11mins A short performance to camera by solo performer/dramatist Neil Bartlett. Pedagogue explores in comic style the possible implications of Clause 28. Through Clause 28, the British Government took powers to outlaw the 'promotion of homosexuality' in education and local government. |
Image from the Annexinema website.
Dr Caroline Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research and teaching specialisms are in 21st century literature and critical theory, science fiction and post-apocalyptic narratives, Marxist aesthetics, and utopianism.
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