Movie Marathon Pics

Terence the Tiger gives Freya a playful mauling.

It was a really enjoyable night & many congrats should go to Martha for pulling together such an oustanding programme, as well as co-ordinating bringing all the kit in.

I think Martha is completely right to say that, in the morning, we all felt 'closer to the space' & that in some sense we had done something quite special with it. Not just creating a comfortable & workable arthouse cinema, if only a temporary one, & with some goddammed lights which don't appear to have off switches... Without sounding TOO grand, it felt like it changed us all a little bit (not just in the sense that I hadn't seen those films before, & now I have). I had some great conversations & felt closer to several people... Phil, Freya, Lee, Helen, & even some nice new people I had never met before.

I think every time I bump into those people at private views, or around town, we will both share a smile at a fond shared memory. Hopefully some of them will keep coming to the Black Lab, or we will do some work together soon.

I think the first film was my favourite, in a way. It was a good way to bring in some theory in a way which made people laugh out loud, but at the same time wasn't belittling that theory by making comedy out of it.

As for the very trippy one with the big tower in it, well, maybe accusing the director of taking too many psychotropic drugs was a bit unfair, or at least a bit of shorthand for something else that I didn't quite like about it. It was beautiful & I did really enjoy it... but sometimes I think these things ONLY have 'meaning' in the sense of a drug-induced sense of meaning which is in danger, sometimes, of having no meaning at all. Sometimes, of course, that kind of wilful bizareness for bizareness' sake can itself be quite revolutionary, if only in the sense that the film maker is revolting against the percieved need for meaning in everything. It was a riot!

There wasn't a single film on the night which I DISLIKED (although I slept through two of them). I felt more energised by the Badiou Lecture and this night than anything we have done in there thusfar, & it feels like, post the BBC break, we are starting to come up with a really good form, shape, idea for space. Can't wait for more!