PLATO’S CAVE
EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS & ALPHAVILLE (1965) by Jean-Luc Godard
PROGRAMMED BY SAI-LI & MIKE DUNFORD
THAMESMEAD TEXAS are proud to present two film screenings led by our 2022 VOLUNTEER COHORT.
SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2022: PLATO’S CAVE
6:00PM – OPEN for drinks and hot dogs
7:15PM – EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS, including works by Sai Li, Anna Lena Krause, Peter Gidal & Mike Dunford (73 minutes)
8:30 – 8:45PM – INTERVAL (15 mins)
8:4PM – ALPHAVILLE (1965) by Jean-Luc Godard (99 minutes)
10:20PM – Film concludes/ chat at bar (30 mins)
11:00PM – CLOSE
‘Our program focuses on the theme of film, not just as a means of story-telling, or narrative construction, but also on the alternative possibilities within moving-image making’.
The program is in two sections, the first is concerned with a very limited survey of differing ways of working with the moving image using examples from Sai Li, a visual artist based in London working in photography, film and installation; Anna Lena Krause, a visual artist from Berlin, currently based in London; Peter Gidal, an exponent of the structuralist material approach from the 1970’s and Mike Dunford, another film-maker from the 1970’s Film Co-op, now working in digital.
After a short interval, Jean Luc Godard’s celebrated film “Alphaville” (1965) will be screened. This work takes the standard detective and sci-fi genre and turns it on its head, with an almost Brechtian style of acting, counter-intuitive editing and sound and brilliant black and white cinemaphotography by Raoul Coutard, Godard’s famous cameraman. With nods to Metropolis (1927) and Dick Tracy (1937), and the beautiful Anna Karina (1940 – 2019) as the star.
JEAN-LUC GODARD (3 December 1930 – 13 September 2022) was a Franco-Swiss filmmaker and a leading member of the “French New Wave”. Known for stylistic innovations that challenged the conventions of Hollywood cinema, he is universally recognized as the most audacious, radical, as well as the most influential of the Nouvelle Vague filmmakers. His work reflects a fervent knowledge of film history, a comprehensive understanding of existential and Marxist philosophy, and a profound insight into the fragility of human relationships.
SAI LI is a visual artist based in London. Her work ranges from photography, film to installation.Her research focuses on a binary of power confrontation, using the dynamic power in gender relations as a metaphor to further explore the fluid power relations between individuals and society. The reason for her to join the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema is that she enjoys the community atmosphere and the more human-focused group. Her favourite movie is American Beauty.
MIKE DUNFORD went to Goldsmiths College and did sculpture in 1964, and towards the end started making films in Standard 8mm. That led to showing work at the Drury Lane Arts Lab in 1968, and to joining with other film-makers to set up the London Film-makers Coop where they were able to make, process and show their films in their own cinema. Mike liked the idea of joining the Thamesmead Travelling Cinema because of a romantic attachment to the idea of a Travelling Cinema and also because he enjoyed the gig he had in Oakland California as a projectionist showing political documentary once a week at a community arts centre. And he also like the idea of being able to talk with audience members about what we all just saw.
Supported by Bow Arts Trust