About Film

07/11/2022

As if to help me out, the guys over at Little White Lies have made a couple videos about New Hollywood. As I'm focussing on Anti-New Hollywood at About Film right now this is great timing. Is this homework, I guess it kinda is. But I'm such a "cool" teaching that the pop-quiz will be dead easy!

The Rise of New Hollywood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6byV69VBLw

The Fall of New Hollywood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSTUCkXjAzc

In the early 1980s, the American film movement that had dominated the previous decade was deemed to be over. But was Michael Cimino’s to blame? ...

12/07/2022

I've found myself intrigued and excited by pop-cultures hankering for all things analogue. In preparing for About Film I was very close to ordering some VHS and seeing if my old VHS player works (I already have an old CRT TV, what else would you plug a SNES into?).

I'm noticing three interconnected trends:
1) Examples that integrate VHS imagery and icons into contemporary digital forms. Consider Stranger Things, Riverdale, and TikTok filters.
2) Examples that mine VHS culture to comment on it. Again, Riverdale but also Censor (2021) by Prano Bailey-Bond.
3) Examples that use outdated tech., like the musician OgreSound who releases their wares on analogue tape, or the film V/H/S 94 (2021) that included a limited, and apropos, VHS release.

Have you noticed any of this in the media you're engaged with?

23/06/2022

Our John Carpenter About Film event will focus on his contribution to cinema. But lest we forget, he's also an influential synthwave artist. Check out this recent documentary about synthwave, Rise of the Synths (2019).

Everyone likes homework before a night out, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCYAjkwZcd0

09/12/2020

Hi all,

In lieu of any new About Film news, we will be posting about film events and any film news that catches our eye and might pique your interest. About Film was designed to provoke film discussion, and while it's unclear when we can next be in a room together we will use the time to provide tidbits for anyone who's interested.

With that in mind, check out the Sci-Fi-London film festival. They have gone fully online this year (for obvs.) and offer a range of free events and reasonably priced cinematic fare - £5.00 non-concession to see ALL their shorts, for example.

We're keen to watch the American Astronaut (2001). It's screening for free on Friday 11th at 18:30. If anyone tunes in also then let us know what you think.

20TH BIRTHDAY FREE SCREENING The very first SCI-FI-LONDON opened at the Curzon Soho and our first film was a debut film by the director, Cory McAbee. Fresh from Sundance, where it won the Sloan Award, and the Toronto film festival, The American Astronaut is still one of our all-time favourite films....

07/09/2020

Hi All,

Hope you are all keeping well. We haven't posted much here over the past months. But we are quietly hopeful that we will be able to return, in some form, by the end of this year.

In the mean time, if you fancy doing some film studies in a more formal environment then check out this offering from Edin. Uni. short course programme. It's run by Tony McKibbin, an About Film regular and whose opinions and expertise on film are always worth listening to.

https://www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/FM/film-media-and-contemporary-cultures/FM189/introduction-to-film-studies-online/