With Brighton’s film festival Cinecity kicking off this week, there are some great films events and exhibitions popping up around the city. This year is the 13th edition of the festival that celebrates a global mix of cinema and there’s a jam-packed programme running until 29th November. But with enough events to spend your whole month’s budget on, I’ve found some of the exciting, free events that shouldn’t be missed.
Brightening up our very own Grand Parade will an exhibition celebrating 40 years of the BBC’s televised documentary series Arena. Arena: Night and Day will run continuously 24 hours a day, displaying a “visual journey that follows the pattern of day and night in sync with British winter time.” Drawing from their achieves of over 600 original films, when the University’s Gallery closes for the night, the visuals continue to be seen from the street outside.
The festival runs in partnership with the University of Brighton and part of this years programme includes some of the university’s own talent from the BA (Hons) Moving Image course. The 16th of November sees the Emporium host a night of short films, instillations, and live music to celebrate the hard work and talent of the student’s way into the night, filling the whole venue with their original ideas.
Another showcase of upcoming talent, is the collection of short films by the Brighton Film School students. With two chances to view the array of products from the Filmmaking and Set Design courses the days are sure to inspire other film and art students with their display of new and creative ideas.
From rising talent, to undoubtedly talented film pioneer, Alfred Hitchcock. Duke of York’s will be screening Phoenix Tapes, a collection of excerpts from Hitchcock’s films to reveals some of the filmmaker’s darker obsessions. In six chapters it examines the motifs in his films, to reveal his guilty conscious and desires he seeped onto the screen. This piece of insightful work is being shown on the 17th November, and tickets can be booked from the Duke of York’s website.
If you’re heading out of Brighton by train, then take a literal minute to look up at the station’s big screen. You’ll see Hove’s very own early filmmaker George Albert Smiths, 60-second-long romance, Kiss in the Tunnel. The film, first exhibited in 1899, represented a breakthrough in early cinema, it was the first British use of editing, and now can be viewed in the same loud, bustling environment as it would have originally been seen. The short will run for a minute, every six minutes above the departures board.
Finally a tribute to the soon to be demolished Circus Street Market Hall. The original concept by Straybird artists (Becky Edmunds and Lucy Cash) with photographer Zoe Manders collected the experiences and memories of those who worked at the Market in its prime. The exhibition at the Onca Gallery will present both still and moving images as a way to re-imagine this once bustling marketplace. The instillation will be on display Wednesday-Sunday until the 28th November.
For more information on these free events and how to book, or to see some of the other films that are part of this years programme, visit the CineCity website.
By Louise Conway
