![]() ![]() It seems appropriate that this première screening will take place at the Working Men's Club in Bethnal Green not too far away from Mile End where the first flying bomb landed in 1940.īlack Umbrella situates itself as a subjective exploration of a recently discovered, abandoned archive – which could have been potentially lost, a secret history – of the city we inhabit, London. Our project now is to create a series of "new" films, through discussion and engagement with the material, and also to seize any occasion to show this archive in varying contexts to the public.įor this screening we present the first manifestation of the Fire Project which has facilitated the opportunity for artist filmmakers to re-configure and re-interpret the archive in the context of their living experiences in London – or in any way they choose, an agenda-free brief – resulting in a series of diverse urban "cine-poems, critical, visual metaphors and aphorisms" some of which will be screened in Europe later this year. As filmmakers it seemed our duty to rescue and study these films, rather than leave them to be consigned the to a skip-forever lost in the void of landfill. ![]() What we had discovered was a detailed, visual record depicting the changing shape of London. The burning down of Crystal Palace in 1934, the flying bomb raids on central and east London in 1940, the fire at the Houses of Parliament in 1958 and, even more shocking, a discarded 16mm print of Peter Watkins's 1965 film The War Game. …It became apparent that what was contained in these cans was in fact a forgotten history an abandoned archive spanning over five decades of film shot in London at major fire incidents. For 20 years The War Gamewas forcefully suppressed from TV screens anywhere in the world." – Patrick Murphy It was mainly through cinema release in 1966 that the film gained a loyal and vociferous following. The row about The War Gamewent all the way to the Prime Minister Harold Wilson himself. ![]() Blending fiction and fact to create a moving and startling vision of the personal as well as the public consequences of such an attack, Watkins exposes the inadequacy of the nations Civil Defence programme and questions the philosophy of nuclear deterrent. Made for TV in 1965, the film is a drama documentary about a 'limited' nuclear attack on Kent. "Few films have caused such controversy as Peter Watkins' The War Game. Black Umbrella is a triptych, using three simultaneous projections to provoke unexpected associations, meanings and present a visceral history of London, where architecture and landscape were constantly changed through fires and bombs. With live score by Hector Castells & Richard SidesĪ subjective re-edit and reinterpretation of 16mm documentary footage of fires in London from across the twentieth century. Black Umbrella will be followed by Peter Watkins's notorious 1965 drama documentary The War Game, a complete 16mm copy of which was found along with the fire footage.Ģ011 | 15 min | B/W and Colour | 16mm film triptych ![]() The first film, Black Umbrella, is a new montage by filmmaker Louis Benassi, who uses footage of fires in London to present a unique vision of the capital during war and peacetime. 1 February 2011: Abandoned Archives and Forgotten Histories RememberedĬlose-Up presents two films discovered in a stockpile of discarded 16mm film. ![]()
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