20h @ La Lumiere Collective
studio #506, 7080, rue Alexandra, Montréal (QC) H2S 3J5

Tickests – FREE (reservation required)

A very special event screening two artist films from the North West Film Archive (NWFA) at Manchester Metropolitan University. I’m delighted that i’m able to show a new 2k version (working cut) of my 2010 film Noah’s Ark, remade from new scans of the orginal source films. The story is about preservation and conservation, and remaking the film is another act of conservation in action.

Even more special is that Chris Paul Daniels is also coming to present his 2023 film Is there Anybody There?, which was also made with the NWFA. Chris is one of the people I love most in the world (and in that sense I’m definitely not alone), and his films and his approach to filmmaking in general are an inspiration. He has a feeling and he finds the film in there. His script writing channels Jim Morrison stream of consciousness with Alan Patridge style puns to create a very British form of mediumship for the audience to decode. Serious, throughtful, but not without humour, whether he is making images or curating them, he has good taste and good timing – he always finds a sense and a nonsense. We worked on One Square Mile (2017) together and he demonstrated to me the importance of just getting started, shooting and writing and allowing the film to find its form, before being judicious in the edit. So, if you’re in Montreal and you want to meet a lovely person and a great filmmaker, please come along!

In addition, we have another wonderful person and professional in attendance – Nick Gladden, director of the NWFA. Nick was working at the NWFA back when I made Noah’s Ark in 2010 (when th amazing Marion Hewitt was the director), so it’s great that he will be helping us present these works together. Nick and Chris are also in town for the 2025 FIAF congress (Federation of International Film Archives) which is taling place at Cinématheque Québecoise (full details here). There’s some nice overlap in terms of people involved and Vidéographe and my recent Hors Champ article, so it feels like my various worlds are aligning in the nxt couple of weeks. Im sure the cryptic sooth-saying narrator of Chris’s films (Alice Prowse) would have something to say about that.