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Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti
An unconventional portrait of painter Frida Kahlo and photographer Tina Modotti. Simple in style but complex in its analysis, it explores the divergent themes and styles of two contemporary and radical women artists working in the upheaval of the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
Casts & Crew
Frida Kahlo
Tina Modotti
Diego Rivera
Miriam Margolyes
Also Directed by Peter Wollen
Milton Rogovin is an 82-year-old photographer in Buffalo, New York, who began taking photographs in the ‘50s. In this programme, Rogovin discusses his work, whilst the subjects of his photographs talk about their lives and attitudes to being photographed.
Penthesilea, the first of six films made by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, traverses thousands of years to look at the image of the Amazonian woman in myth. It asks, among other questions, is the Amazonian woman a rare strong female image or is she a figure derived from male phantasy? The film explores the complexities of such questions, but does not seek any concrete answers.
Experimental drama set in London during the Thatcher administration involving four characters: Neil, a science-fiction illustrator, who is accidentally killed in Mexico City; Kim, a woman rock musician; Vermilion, an analyst of satellite photography; and Julian, an old friend of the illustrator who has just finished his Ph.D thesis on the fairy-tales of Charles Perrault. Their four lives are closely interlinked as events happen to each of them.
Jane is the illegitimate daughter of a Scottish landowner. She is disowned and expelled from his estates, but although she setltes down to a new life in London, she is still haunted by the memory of her childhood and her mother's mysterious death. In a trance, she sets out on dreamlike journeys in search of freedom and revenge.
A robot messenger (Tilda Swinton) is sent to earth to appeal to humans to live in peace. Originally designed to go to MIT, by mistake she ends up in Amman, Jordan during the Black September riots of 1970. Sullivan, a British journalist, (Bill Paterson) comes to her aid when she is found wandering without papers following a bombing and grants her refuge in his hotel room. But there she tells him she is a robot, sent as a peace envoy from another planet. He is not sure whether to believe her story or not, but finds her unusual view of the world appealing. They examine the human condition in a series of incredibly insightful and entertaining conversations.
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. Mulvey and Wollen’s experimental documentary combines newsreel footage of the aviator’s arrival, dramatic recreations of events from her life and contemporary discussions by feminist groups on the subject of heroism in this most unconventional biopic.
Mulvey's readings of the myth of Oedipus and the sphinx are layered atop 360º panning shots of various locales; the protagonist appears in elliptically-edited sequences.
Also Directed by Laura Mulvey
Penthesilea, the first of six films made by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, traverses thousands of years to look at the image of the Amazonian woman in myth. It asks, among other questions, is the Amazonian woman a rare strong female image or is she a figure derived from male phantasy? The film explores the complexities of such questions, but does not seek any concrete answers.
Filmmakers Laura Mulvey and Mark Lewis use rare archival footage and interviews with artists, art historians, and museum directors to examine the fate of Soviet-era monuments during successive political regimes, from the Russian Revolution through the collapse of communism. Mulvey and Lewis highlight both the social relevance of these relics and the cyclical nature of history. Broadcast on Channel Four as part of the 'Global Image' series (1992-1994).
Experimental drama set in London during the Thatcher administration involving four characters: Neil, a science-fiction illustrator, who is accidentally killed in Mexico City; Kim, a woman rock musician; Vermilion, an analyst of satellite photography; and Julian, an old friend of the illustrator who has just finished his Ph.D thesis on the fairy-tales of Charles Perrault. Their four lives are closely interlinked as events happen to each of them.
23 August 2008 consists of two shots. A brief opening shot, intercut with inter-titles, of the famous Al-Mutanabbi Street book market in Baghdad is followed by an unbroken eighteen-minute monologue, shot from a single, still camera position and simply recording the speaker’s words without interruption. In it, Faysal Abudullah gradually builds a portrait of his relationship with his younger brother, Kamel, and in the process evokes the lives of Iraqi intellectuals of the left, driven into exile in the early 1980s by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Faysal describes Kamel’s decision to return to Iraq in 2003, his work for the new Ministry of Culture and his tragic death at the hands of unknown assassins on 23 August 2008. While the film throws light on little known aspects of Iraq’s political history, primarily it is the story of the two brothers, of Faysal’s devotion to Kamel and their contrasting attitudes to exile and to life itself.
Jane is the illegitimate daughter of a Scottish landowner. She is disowned and expelled from his estates, but although she setltes down to a new life in London, she is still haunted by the memory of her childhood and her mother's mysterious death. In a trance, she sets out on dreamlike journeys in search of freedom and revenge.
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. Mulvey and Wollen’s experimental documentary combines newsreel footage of the aviator’s arrival, dramatic recreations of events from her life and contemporary discussions by feminist groups on the subject of heroism in this most unconventional biopic.
Mulvey's readings of the myth of Oedipus and the sphinx are layered atop 360º panning shots of various locales; the protagonist appears in elliptically-edited sequences.