December film club: Short film special

December's film club is going to be a short film special, as well as being the second birthday of film club and a chance to celebrate Christmas, film club style.

Showing this month is my friend Andrew's BAFTA-nominated short film Bye Child.

"A Scary Little Jewel of a Film" - The Glasgow Herald

It's based on the Seamus Heaney poem of the same name, which in turn is based on the true life story of a child kept in a chicken shed in rural Ireland. The film was shown as part of the Grace Church Hackney Firstfruits festival in October, and by all accounts went down pretty well. So I thought I'd show it again.

I've working my way through some short films on DVD, and I think I'll also show:

The Opening Day of Close-Up (Nani Moretti)
Fridge (Peter Mullan)
Copy Shop (Virgil Wildrich)

That said, the number of films shown will of course depend on the amount of discussion and how much rather people might want to drink mulled wine or other seasonal fayre.

It's on this Friday - 11 December at our house in Bow. See here for map.

Hollywood lecture

At the end of September I did a lecture entitled Is Hollywood's Art in the Right Place? A hundred years of tension between art and commerce in American cinema. I've said for ages that I'll post it up online, so at last, here it is.

Click here to download the text of the lecture.

I also intended to upload the audio recording of the lecture, but in order to do that, I'll have to find the CD first!