Tamara Anderson

Carolee Schneemann Film Series

Sat 17 Sep – Thu 10 Nov 2022

I curated this film series to complement the exhibition Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics in the Barbican Gallery. The season offers audiences a chance to view Schneemann’s film works in a cinema space, and places alongside experimental films made by Schneemann’s contemporaries which approach similar themes. This is a complex season to pull together, involving experimental film archives across Europe and North America.

Silent Film & Live Music

November 2022 and January 2023

In a new role overseeing the Barbican’s silent film programme, I’m delighted to bring musicians Haiku Salut and Meg Morley to London to perform their new live score to People on Sunday (Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1930), and to fulfil a long-time wish to present Tod Browning’s lurid circus-set melodrama The Unknown (1927).

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests - Reel #10 + live music

27 Feb 2020

Between 1964-66, Warhol would ask some visitors to the Factory to sit in front of his tripod-mounted 16mm Bolex camera, face forward, and hold still. They each sat for three minutes. The films that resulted are known as the Screen Tests, and are collectively thought of as some of the greatest portraiture in all cinema. Working with the catalogue raisonne of Screen Tests, I programmed Reel #10 on 16mm from MoMA in New York; the sitters in this batch include Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed, and a glowering Jonas Mekas. They were projected with a new live soundtrack, commissioned by the Barbican’s contemporary music programmer, from DJ and producer Leif.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival

12 – 20 Mar 2020

Again in 2020, I produced the Human Rights Watch Film Festival screenings for the Barbican. The festival opened with a preview of Collective (Alexander Nanau, 2019), followed by a Skype Q&A with the director and journalist Amelia Gentleman, author of The Windrush Betrayal. Very sadly, the festival closed shortly afterwards, owing to the outbreakd of Covid-19.

OTHER MODERNISMS, OTHER FUTURES

Thu 3 – Thu 31 Mar 2022

I conceived and co-curated this season of modernist art cinema from outside Europe and North America, using new digital restorations of many hard-to-see films, including the lyrical Soviet would-be Nouvelle Vague film July Rain (Marlen Khutsiev, 1967), Iranian rom-com Downpour (Bahram Beyzaie, 1972 - pictured), and a searing example of Indian Parallel Cinema, Interview (Mrinal Sen, 1971), which I introduced on-stage.

ALRAUNE + live music

10 Nov 2019

I produced this screening of this Weimar-era gem - a fable about the dangers of genetic engineering, in which a test-tube baby grows up to become a dangerous vamp - with live accompaniment by pianist Stephen Horne and drummer Martin Pyne. Despite advancing some pretty retro ideas about female sexuality, the film does provide a wonderfully sexy, wicked role for Brigitte Helm (Metropolis), and features some terrific 20s fashions.

Japanese Avant-garde and Experimental Film Festival

20 – 22 Sep 2019

The festival returned to the Barbican once again in 2019, where I produced the screenings for our venue. This year’s edition included a memorable opening gala of Paul Schrader’s Mishima biopic, followed by Kirin beer and vintage Japanese pop in the cinema cafe.

After the Wave: Young French Cinema in the 1970s

6 Jun – 25 Jul 2019

Designed to offer an alternative to summer blockbusters, and to run in conjunction with a summertime drinks offer in our bar, this season brings together work by the generation of filmmakers who emerged both after the Nouvelle Vague and after the events of May 68. Never formally aligned as a movement, still less a 'brand', these directors made films that foreground regional, working-class and female protagonists, and share an interst in the cultural fall-out of the recent civil unrest, and a new frankness about sex. Includes work by Alain Tanner, Philippe Garrel and Chantal Akerman.

Smart Robots, Mortal Engines: Stanislaw Lem on Film

11 – 16 Apr 2019

I curated this season of rare screen adaptations of Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem as the Barbican's contribution to the 2019 Kinoteka Polish Film Festival. The season included a rare on-stage appearance by the Brothers Quay, and two scre –enings so rare they required live subtitles: the East German space opera Silent Star (1959) and the Russian TV version of Solyaris (1968). The season was reviewed for the online edition of the film magazine Sight & Sound.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival

14 – 22 Mar 2019

Highlights of my first year producing the festival for the Barbican - now its principal venue in London - included Q&As with Eliot Higgins, from the citizen investigative journalist collective Bellingcat, and with director Bing Liu for his Oscar-nominated documentary Minding the Gap (2018).

London International Mime Festival

20 Jan & 3 Feb 2019

In 2019, I presented two silent films in collaboration with the festival: The General (Buster Keaton, 1926) with a new live score performed by the electronic music department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the fabulously creepy He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjostrom, 1924) – featuring over 45 clowns! – on an ultra-rare 35mm print from a French collector.

Jeune Femme + Laetitia Dosch Q&A

6 Oct 2018

To complement the run in our Theatre of La maladie de la mort, starring Laetitia Dosch, I produced this special screening of her break-out film Jeune Femme (Léonor Serraille, 2017) followed by an on-stage Q&A hosted by Jonathan Romney.

Artists and Activists: Second Wave Feminist Filmmaking

2 – 3 June 2018

Under the banner of the Barbican's annual theme for 2018, 'Art of Change', I invited the Women's Film Preservation Fund in New York to curate a weekend of rare films from the American Women's Movement of the 1970s. I was pleased to welcome the Chair of the fund, several of the original filmmakers, and high-profile British guests including Susie Orbach, Sheila Rowbotham and Bonnie Greer.

My Twisted Valentine: La Prisonniere

13 Feb 2018

Josh Saco (from Cigarette Burns Cinema) and I waited for years to screen this film: while StudioCanal prepared their digital restoration, the French 35mm print was withdrawn from circulation, and all screenings forbidden. What a treat, then, to be the first UK venue to screen the beautiful new 4K DCP – and to a full house.

EFG London Jazz Festival

11 – 19 Nov 2017

My picks for this year’s festival included Chasing Trane (John Scheinfeld, 2016), a documentary portrait of jazz genius John Coltrane, Cool Cats (Janus Køster-Rasmussen, 2015), about Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster’s stay in Copenhagen in the mid-60s, and – on a beautiful imported 35mm print – Les Liaisons dangereuses (Roger Vadim, 1959), the soundtrack to which, by legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, was finally issued as an album in 2017.

John Akomfrah presents...

24 Oct 2017 – 4 Jan 2018

To complement the installation in the Barbican's Curve gallery, I worked with John Akomfrah's studio to present four films, all classics of world cinema, which had influenced his practice or worldview. Included was the celebrated portmanteau film Far From Vietnam (1967), one of the most powerful works of cinematic protest ever made.

TRAJAL HARRELL FILM SERIES

25 Jul – 8 Aug 2017

Complementing Trajal Harrell’s performance exhibition in our Art Gallery, I curated three films by or featuring other artists and performers whose work has informed his own. My selections reflect his intrest in butoh, postmodern dance and the films of Wong Kar-Wai. 

CINEMA MATTERS: BIGGER THAN LIFE

3 – 18 Jul 2017

Our year-long series looking at the impact of cinema in the world continues with four films which together illustrate how cinema has dazzled us with out-sized close-ups, movies stars and big-screen spectaculars. Includes a screening of Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel, 1971), a film which takes a a particularly playful, knowing approach to its stars, and to notions of stardom.

INTO THE WOODS

3 – 25 May 2017

Programmed for May, a month which opens with a bank holiday that has its origins in pagan festivals celebrating spring and fertility, this folk horror season was curated by Cigarette Burns Cinema, and coordinated by me. 

CINEMA MATTERS: INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC

12 Jan – 11 Feb 2017

The first part of our year-long 'alternative' history of cinema looked at the technologies and business of film and its implications for storytelling. I was especially pleased to screen Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, 2003), an affectionate tribute to the film medium, cinemas and the pleasures of cinema-going, on a 35mm print imported from the director's production company in Taiwan. 

UNDERWIRE FESTIVAL

1 – 4 Dec 2016

In our first year as a partner venue, I co-ordinated three festival screenings for this important festival celebrating the endeavours and achievements of women in all aspects of the film industry.

HEAD TRIPS: FILMS FOR THE INNER EYE 2016

19 – 27 Sep 2016

For my second season of trippy, unusual and spiritual films, I picked Werner Herzog's epic trance film Fata Morgana (1971), Sergei Parajanov's mystical, wildly beautiful The Colour of Pomegranates (1969), Maya Deren's voodoo documentary Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1944/77) and – in the London premiere of a stunning 4K restoration – psychedelic anime Belladonna of Sadness (Eichi Yamamoto, 1973).

MY TWISTED VALENTINE 2016

13 – 14 Feb 2016

In 2016, my alternative Valentine's weekend line-up was 2046 (2004), Wong Kar-Wai's sort-of sequel to In the Mood for Love, the ultimate awkward love triangle film, The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973), Jack Smith's ground-breaking piece of queer cinema, Normal Love (1963), and (with Cigarette Burns Cinema), scuzzy cult rarity Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965).

LEE HAZLEWOOD SWEDISH TV SPECIALS

25 Oct 2015

Complementing a concert in the Barbican Hall paying tribute to songwriter Lee Hazlewood, I produced a triple-bill of three rare films made for Swedish TV – two companion-pieces to his albums Cowboy In Sweden (Torbjörn Axelman,1970) and Requiem For An Almost Lady (Torbjörn Axelman, 1972), plus a third, The N.S.V.I.P.s (Torbjörn Axelman, 1973), featuring a fantastic collection of Harry Chapin covers.

THE COLOUR OF MONEY

10 – 20 Sep 2015

I contributed to this season of exploring themes of power, wealth and poverty, gentrification, corruption and consumerism, with screenings of Marxist Western The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollina, 1966), Depression-era musical Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn Leroy, 1933), horror critique of capitalism Dawn of the Dead (George A Romero, 1978), and the big screen adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992) introduced by economist and Observer columnist Will Hutton.

WOMEN AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF MEXICAN CINEMA

1 – 4 May 2015

Working closely with the Instituto Méxicano de Cinematografía, I curated this season of vintage melodrama and film noir and an accompanying photography exhibition of portraits of celebrated Mexican screen goddess Maria Felix.

BERLIN CALLING

8 – 29 Jan 2015

To offset the gloomy London January nights, I programmed this season of five neon-tinted tales of music, nightlife and angels in wild late-1970s/early-80s West Berlin: the Wim Wenders classic Wings of Desire (1987), Rosa von Praunheim's musical extravaganza City of Lost Souls (1983), cyberpunk oddity Decoder (Muscha, 1984), Ticket of No Return (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979), starring German punk icon Nina Hagen, and cult favourite Christiane F (Ulrich Edel, 1981).

CINEMA'S BADDEST GIRL GANGS

5 – 26 Apr 2014

For the first of my monthly themed repertory screenings, I picked my favourite examples from the girl gang sub genre: The Women (George Cukor, 1939), Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970), Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965) and Heathers (Michael Lehman, 1989).

INGMAR BERGMAN: DANGEROUS LIAISONS

3 – 24 Nov 2013

To complement Ivo von Hove's stage production of Scenes from a Marriage in the Barbican Theatre, I curated this short season foregrounding the importance and influence of women in Bergman's work. 

URBAN WANDERING

18 Sep – 2 Oct 2013

I contributed to this major cinema season exploring the London landscape on film with events including an evening of archival film covering five decades of social housing provision in the capital, followed by a debate with writers Will Self and Lynsey Hanley; a celebration of pioneering architecture critic and topographer Ian Nairn, with a screening of his rare documentary on Pimlico and episodes of the BBC series Nairn's Travels, followed by a talk with Elaine Harwood, Owen Hatherley and Travis Elborough; and a book launch with daredevil place-hacker Bradley L Garrett.

THE ENGLISH SURGEON

Tue 9 Apr 2013

Neuroscientist Henry Marsh was nearing completion of his book Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery (W&N, 2014) when he joined me on stage for a Q&A after a screening of Geoffrey Smith's moving documentary about his life and work.

A PAGE OF MADNESS

Sun 10 Mar 2013

One of the most memorable silent film events I ever curated and produced was this screening of the dazzling 1926 Japanese classic by Teinosuke Kinugasa accompanied by a live electronic score by In The Nursery.

LONDON INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2012

25 Oct – 4 Nov 2012

This was my first year coordinating festival screenings at the Barbican; at this point the majority of the over 250 short films were still supplied in physical formats, 16mm and 35mm prints - quite a feat just to keep track of them all! A highlight of my first year were programmes by independent Japanese animators Keita Kurosaka (b. 1956) and Koji Yamamura, who was present for a Q&A.

SUPPRESSION / EXPRESSION

Tue 6 – Sat 24 Nov 2012

Complementing Everything Was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s in the Barbican Gallery, I curated this season looking at the directions cinema was taking in these same years. The selection – which ranged from Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog, 1970) to Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambety, 1979) to Winter Soldier (Winterfilm Collective, 1972) – was intended to evoke  a period when New Waves rolled across the globe, post-colonial nations started to represent themselves on screen for the first time, and filmmakers worldwide took up contemporary political debates, often meeting with controversy or censorship. 

The Slapstick House + live music

19 Jan 2020

I curated this triple-bill of of superlative American slapstick comedies of the 1910s and 20s all revolving around the idea of the home as a site of destruction. In One Week (1921), Buster Keaton and his new bride are presented with their new home in flatpack, to be assembled; in One A.M. (1916), Charlie Chaplin returns a little ‘merry’ from a night out and finds his home transformed into a kind of obstacle course; and in Big Business (1929), Laurel and Hardy start a row with a suburban homeowner, a fight which escalates to breath-taking heights of gleeful trashing of valuable furniture, priceless objects, even the fabric of the house itself.

La-bas + book launch

28 Sep 2019

This event, programmed in collaboration with Silver Press and A Nos Amours, celebrated the publication in English translation of Chantal Akerman’s memoir My Mother Laughs. After the screening, author Deborah Levy (The Cost of Living) read aloud from the book.

SUMMER SEASONS: HEAT OF THE MOMENT AND COME TOGETHER: CONCERTS ON FILM

1 – 30 Aug 2019

I contributed to some summertime joint programming, with choices including I Knew Her Well (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965), the notorious Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank, 1972), and Thom Andersen’s Melting (1964-5), showing the disintegration of a strawberry sundae.

Architecture on Film: Agnes Varda Triple Bill + Intro

21 May 2019

Organised prior to Agnes Varda's death in March 2019, we dedicated this screening to her memory. We were pleased to share with audiences three of her lesser-screened films, L'Opera Mouffe (1958), Daguerreotypes (1975) and Les Dites-caryatides (1984), introduced by Cambridge University academic Isabelle McNeill, whose work focuses on Paris, urbanity and memory in French cinema.

Daria Martin: Film-work as Dream-work + Q&A

28 Mar 2019

In an event tied to her new installation in the Barbican Curve, Tonight the World, Artist and Jarman Award 2018 winner Daria Martin joined us for a screening which paired her early shorts with others by Germaine Dulac, Maya Deren and Laure Prouvost. The event was curated and hosted by Dr Maria Walsh, author of Art and Psychoanalysis (2012), expanding on her catalogue essay.

Architecture on Film: The Dilapidated Dwelling + Q&A

29 Jan 2019

A highlight of my time producing the Architecture on Film series for the Barbican, this screening of Patrick Keiller's 'lost' Channel 4 documentary was followed by an on-stage Q&A with the director and architecture writer Owen Hatherley.

New Suns: A Feminist Literary Festival

3 Nov 2018

For the film strand of the inaugural edition of the Festival, co-produced with Silver Press, I programmed a new documentary about Ursula K Le Guin and the 1972 adaptation of Joan Didion's cult novel Play It as It Lays (Frank Perry, 1972) on a specially-imported 35mm print.

The Television Will Be Revolutionised: Channel 4 and the 1982 Workshop Declaration

13 – 16 Sep 2018

This season was memorable for inspiring a hugely commented article by Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian, and for a lively opening night event which brought together representatives from the Ceddo, Trade Films, Amber Films and Sheffield Film Coop workshops and a commissioner from Channel 4.

Edge of Frame Weekend

3 Mar 2018

This was our first year participating in this weekend festival of experimental animation which grew out of Edwin Rostron's blog, Edge of Frame. It was our great pleasure to host animator Peter Burr for a retrospective of his work, and a Q&A. 

London International Animation Festival

1 – 10 Dec 2017

Again in 2017 I co-ordinated the Barbican screenings in the London International Animation Festival. Clear highlights this year were the two events with animator David OReilly – an opening retrospective and Q&A, and a lecture about the dangers and frustrations of working in commercial art, and how this field can best be understood and navigated by artists.

Cinema Matters:
Time, Memory, Dream

2 Nov – 14 Dec 2017

Cinema emerged at the turn of the nineteenth century as an unprecedented means of capturing time: “Now, for the first time,” wrote film critic André Bazin, “the image of things is likewise the image of their duration.” Our year-long screening series considering how cinema changed the world concluded with a clutch of films illustrating how time is created and structured in film and how these techniques have been applied to produce some of the most persuasive representations we have, in any art form, of the experience of time, memory processes and dream states. They included, inevitably, Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (1983), Tarkovsky’s Mirror (1975) and – for its unforgettably dense, dream-like atmosphere – Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975).

SCI-FI SUNDAYS

18 Jun – 20 Aug 2017

To complement the Barbican's exhibition Into the Unknown, I coordinated this programme of repertory classics, including Warning from Space (Koji Shima, 1956) a brilliantly weird piece of vintage Japanese sci-fi projected with live subtitles. 

THE JAPANESE HOUSE

14 May – 25 Jun 2017

To complement The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945 in the Barbican Gallery, I coordinated a season of films derived from the catalogue essay of the show's curator, Florence Ostende. The season culminates in a screening of Ozu's silent film I Was Born, But... (1932) with live Benshi narration. 

CINEMA MATTERS: WHAT THE MOVIES DO TO US

5 Mar – 27 Apr 2017

This second part of our year-long series examining how cinema has changed the world considered the unique ways in which cinema constructs us as spectators and audiences, and the enormous cultural influence of the movies. A double-bill of Buster Keaton classics Sherlock Jr (1924) and The Cameraman (1928) illustrated the movie craze which swept the world in the early days of the medium. 

MAYA DEREN: CHOREOCINEMA

Sun 28 Jan 2017

Complementing material / arranged / to / be, an installation in the Barbican's Curve gallery, I worked with the Siobhan Davis Studio and Claudia Kappenberg, founder-editor of the International Journal of Screendance, on this screening of Maya Deren's 'choreocinema' shorts – works which combine her interest both in the human body in motion, and in the medium of film as a means to choreograph movement.

CHEAP THRILLS: TRASH, THE MOVIES AND THE ART OF TRANSGRESSION

28 Oct – 6 Nov 2016

We took Pauline Kael's famous essay as the starting-point for this ten-day wander into the the badlands of cheap exploitation cinema, arthouse shockers and films-so-bad-they're-art. My picks included Liliana Cavani's notorious The Night Porter (1974), 'Lizsploitation' classic X, Y and Zee (Brian G Hutton, 1972) and – in a glorious 2K digital restoration made especially for our season – Argentine sexploitation wonder Fuego (Armando Bo, 1969).

ALAN MOORE: SHOW PIECES

8 May 2016

I welcomed acclaimed graphic novelist Alan Moore (From Hell, Watchmen, V for Vendetta) for a Q&A following the UK premiere of Show Pieces (Mitch Jenkins, 2016), a trilogy of linked short films based on Moore's original screenplays.

1966 WITH JON SAVAGE

13 – 14 Nov 2015

I worked with publishers Faber & Faber and music critic Jon Savage on a short series of screenings to mark the publication of his new book, 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded (Faber & Faber, 2015). A highlight for me was a screening of The Velvet Underground and Nico – A Symphony of Sound (1966) on a 16mm print loaned by MoMA in New York. 

HEAD TRIPS: FILMS FOR THE INNER EYE 2015

1 – 6 Oct 2015

Complementing the Barbican's annual Transcender festival of spiritual, devotional and psychedelic music, I programmed a mind-expanding film season comprising Nass El Ghiwane concert film Trances (Ahmed El Maanouni, 1981), Gaspar Noe's psychedelic odyssey Enter the Void (2009) and two hypnotic programmes by American abstract filmmakers Paul Sharits (1943–93), James Whitney (1921–82) and Jordon Belson (1926–2011).

NAN GOLDIN AND FRIENDS

6 – 15 Jul 2015

Inspired by the Cookie Mueller biography Edgewise (B books, 2014), I curated a season of films by and starring the friends and contemporaries of photographer Nan Goldin plus one later film, High Art (Lisa Cholodenko, 1998), inspired by her life.

MY TWISTED VALENTINE 2015

12 – 15 Feb 2015

In 2015 I initiated the Barbican's first foray into Valentine's programming, picking four syrup-free alternatives to the regular romantic fare: Sophia Coppola's hypnotic story of adolescent love and death, The Virgin Suicides (1999), misfit romance Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971), lonely-heart lovers-on-the-run classic The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 1969) and – with genre film outfit Cigarette Burns Cinema – the dreamlike tale of erotic obsession Venus in Furs (Jess Franco, 1969).

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2014

15 – 20 Nov 2014

A highlight of this, my second year programming the film strand of the EFG London Jazz Festival, was a special preview of Whiplash. 

LONDON INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2014

24 Oct – 2 Nov 2014

This was my third year working on the festival screenings at the Barbican. For me the stand-out discovery of this year's edition was Japanese indie animator Mirai Mizue (b. 1981) whose film Wonder (2012) – a glorious 365 second animation, a sequence of 8,760 pictures hand-drawn over the course of 365 days – played in the Abstract Showcase on 27 October.

OLD-SKOOL 3D

5 – 26 Jul 2014

In the summer of 2014 pointy fingers, whirring chainsaws and more lept out of the screen at the Barbican as I revived 3D thrills from the heyday of the 1950s stereoscopic craze, all presented in stunning new 3D restorations: House of Wax (Andre de Toth, 1953), Inferno (Roy Ward Baker, 1953), The Mad Magician (John Brahm, 1954) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954).

LONDON INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2013

25 Oct – 3 Nov 2013

Again in 2013 I coordinated the ten days of festival screenings at the Barbican. Some of the most intriguing and imaginative films in competition each year are to be found in the 'abstract showcase' programme of non-narrative, experimental work. Max Hattler (b. 1976), whose film Shift (2012) played in this programme, also joined us for a masterclass.

YEAH YEAH YEAH

3 – 24 Oct 2013

I produced this short season curated by St Etienne's Bob Stanley to mark the publication of his book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop (Faber, 2013). Bob himself joined us for his screening of the Arena documentary The Very Strange Story of the Legendary Joe Meek, and stayed afterwards for a book-signing and Q&A with music journalist Simon Price.

A GRAMMAR OF SUBVERSION

22 Mar – 3 Jun 2013

I co-curated this wide-ranging film season complementing The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns in the Barbican Gallery. The programme explored themes of anarchy, irreverence and subversion, with films by and inspired by Duchamp and the Dada movement. My choices included the Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers (1932), a triple-bill by rebellious duo Laurel and Hardy, and a riotous programme by a trio of 1960s Underground greats, the merry pranksters Robert Nelson, George Landon and Ron Rice.

ROAD MOVIE: A PORTRAIT OF JOHN ADAMS

Sat 16 Mar 2013

A memorable afternoon for me was meeting composer John Adams to introduce the UK premiere of a new documentary profile. Adams presented his Gospel According to the Other Mary in the Barbican Hall that same night.

EVERY DAY I HAVE THE BLUES

Fri 2 – Tue 27 Nov 2012

In my first year programming the film strand of the annual EFG London Jazz Festival I presented a selection of classic movies with famous jazz scores and documentary profiles of legendary jazz- and bluesmen by Terry Zwigoff, Les Blank and Shirley Clarke (pictured). 

my twisted valentine: je t’aime moi non plus

14 Feb 2020

For Valentine’s Day 2020, I chose this utterly original love story from French musical legend and provocateur Serge Gainsbourg, screening from a new 4K digital print courtesy of StudioCanal. Attacked as immoral and scandalous on first release, Gainsbourg’s film has slowly achieved cult status in the intervening years, but still carries a strong transgressive charge. Neither has time dimmed its beauty: rarely have two people looked so good in tight vest tops as our leads, and their dancefloor kiss – to the infamously racy title song – is genuinely electric.

Night Life: Our lives, our spaces

15 – 29 Oct 2019

Complementing the exhibition Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art in our Gallery Space, this joint project considered the value of night clubs as spaces offering a place for people to come together, encounter like minds, and express their true selves. My choices took audiences to Berlin, just after unification, in Berlin Bouncer (David Dietl, 2019), to neon-lit Taipei in Millennium Mambo (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2001), and on a midnight tour of working-class nightspots in 60s Mexico City in Los Caifanes (Juan Ibáñez, 1967) on a beautiful new DCP direct from the Cineteca Nacional de México.

Anime's Human Machines

12 – 30 Sep 2019

This season, curated by anime expert Helen McCarthy, and commissioned and produced by myself, examined the challenge of the man-machine interface through eight films taking robotics, cybernetics and artificial intelligence as major themes. In addition to the screenings, we ran two illustration workshops for kids, led by professional manga artist Chie Kutsuwada, and a masterclass by anime creator and mechanical designer Shoji Kawamori, the man behind the  iconic transforming “variable fighter” mecha in the iconic Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime series.

Bebop New York: The Birth of American Indie Cinema

23 May – 25 Jun 2019

Complementing the Lee Krasner exhibition in our main Gallery, I curated this season looking at the New York filmmakers at work at the same time as the Abstract Expressionists and the Beats, and with a similiar interest in spontaneity and authenticity. The season foregrounds the contribution of women directors Shirley Clarke, Marie Menken and Storm de Hirsch; to introduce them to Barbican audiences, I was invited to write potted biographies of them, here.

If the Dancer Dances + Q&A

6 Apr 2019

As part of the events at the Barbican celebrating 100 years since the birth of influential American choreographer Merce Cunningham, I programmed this new documentary, which shows dancers from the Stephen Petronio Company learning his 1968 piece RainForest. We were joined at the event by director Maia Wechsler, former dancer Lise Friedman, and Trevor Carlson, close friend and Executive Director to Merce Cunningham.

My Twisted Valentine: Der Fan

14 Feb 2019

Continuing our tradition of offering an 'alternative' to regular Valentine's films, in 2019 we teamed up again with Cigarette Burns Cinema to present a rare screening of this German New Wave horror on a pristine 35mm print from a private collector.

Underwire Festival

18 – 24 Nov 2018

The UK's largest festival celebrating female talent in filmmaking returned to our venue in 2018 with an expanded line-up of shorts. Collected into thematic programmes, the films explored resistance, family, the female body, contemporary Britain and men as seen by women.

Japanese Avant-garde and Experimental Film Festival

26 Sep 2018

I produced this, the first edition of the Festival at the Barbican - a panel discussion and a double-bill of 60s counterculture classics, Bad Boys (1961) and Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), followed by Japanese pop and saki in the bar afterwards.

Returning the Colonial Gaze

2 – 30 May

In the African independence era, film was an important part of efforts by African artists and intellectuals to counter misrepresentations by Western filmmakers, and to articulate local identities, cultures and histories undermined by years of colonial rule. In the Barbican’s year of ‘Art of Change’, I curated this season featuring work by French and Francophone African directors from the 50s, 60s and 70s which contest the “colonial gaze” or turn it back on the former colonizing nation. Included are Med Hondo’s Soleil O (1970) on a new DCP from the Cineteca di Bologna, as well as a double-bill of films by Moroccan Moumen Smihi on prints sourced from the director.

Underwire Film Festival 

23 – 26 Nov 2017

Again this year, I coordinated the Underwire Film Festival screenings for the Barbican: three shorts programmes – female takes on masculinity, sex and consent, and taking control – plus a twentieth anniversary screening of The Tango Lesson (Sally Potter, 1997) introduced by Sophie Mayer of queer feminist collective Club Des Femmes. 

Suspiria + Q&A with Dario Argento

14 Nov 2017

A highlight of my time at the Barbican was this unforgettable evening with Dario Argento. We previewed CultFilm’s new 4K DCP of Suspiria, restored and re-issued for its fortieth anniversary, and followed with Q&A with the maestro himself.

THE GRIME AND THE GLAMOUR

29 Sep – 5 Oct 2017

I curated this season spinning off the Barbican Gallery show Basquiat: Boom for Real. With the earliest dating to 1976, the films in our season provide a refracted view of a moment of significant historical change and creative energy in New York. This is the city Basquiat would have known: many of the films are set in the world of the bohemian bourgeoisie on the margins of Manhattan, or emerged directly from the creative community of the East Village. Includes Smithereens (Susan Seidelman, 1982), Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981) and Tally Brown, New York (Rosa von Praunheim, 1979). 

FASHION IN FILM FESTIVAL

25 – 26 Mar 2017

This was the Festival's 10th anniversary season, but my first year coordinating the screenings at the Barbican. The films in this edition were collected under the theme of 'fashion, cinema and time': at our venue they included Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968) – with an illustrated introduction by Clothes on Film blogger Chistopher Laverty – and, with a live new electronic score, a newly mastered cut of rushes created in 1964 in preparation for Henri-Georges Clouzot's film The Inferno. 

MY TWISTED VALENTINE 2017

11 – 14 Feb 2017

My picks for Valentines' Day 2017 were lovers-on-the-run classic Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950), saucy French ménage à trois Les Biches (Claude Chabrol, 1968), Gus Van Sant’s poignant first feature about a wayward crush, Mala Noche (1986), and, with Cigarette Burns Cinema, a groovy 70s updating of the Oscar Wilde classic, The Secret of Dorian Gray (Massimo Dallamano, 1970).

LONDON INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2016

2 – 11 Dec 2016

The 2016 edition of the Festival was the most successful yet. I was particularly pleased to catch the digital restoration of Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (Mitsuyo Seo, 1945), Japan's first full-length animated feature, fresh from the Classics strand of the Cannes Film Festival. 

PARISIENNE

17 Nov 2016

I hosted a Q&A with the director Danielle Arbid following this festival screening of her new film, Parisienne (2016).

SHE'S SO GIALLO: THE WOMEN OF 1970S ITALIAN THRILLERS

7 – 28 Jun 2016

I produced this season, curated by genre/cult film outfit Cigarette Burns Cinema, conceived as a tribute to the leading ladies of giallo, and a challenge to the genre's reputation for misogyny. All four films were presented on rare imported 16mm and 35mm prints: Four Flies on Grey Velvet (Dario Argento, 1971), One on Top of the Other (Lucio Fulci, 1969), The Frightened Woman (Piero Schivazappa, 1969) and All The Colors of the Dark (Sergio Martino, 1972).

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2015

13 – 17 Nov 2015

My third year programming the film strand for the EFG London Jazz Festival was a vintage one for new jazz documentaries. The line-up included The Case of the Three-Sided Dream (Adam Kahan, 2014), about multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and JACO (Paul Marchand, 2014), the story of Jaco Pastorius, a self-taught, larger-than-life jazz musician who single-handedly changed the course of modern music by redefining the sound and the role of the electric bass guitar. I was also proud to screen Shirley Clarke's The Cool World (1964) on a rare 16mm print imported from Frederick Wiseman's production company in New York. 

LONDON INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2015

4 – 13 Dec 2015

For me the highlight of this year's festival was the retrospective programme dedicated to British animator Robert Morgan. In the Q&A afterwards, Morgan memorably discussed using his own toe-nail clippings – diligently harvested over many years – for one of the characters in Bobby Yeah (2011), and brought out from his rucksack the silicon model of the grotesque maggot-like creatures from the same film.

HIP HOP MATTERS

5 – 26 Mar 2015

I worked with Michael 'Mikey J' Asante, cofounder of the Barbican's resident b-boy troupe Boy Blue, to bring together a selection of his favourite vintage hip-hop films on 35mm: Breakin' (Joel Silberg,1984), Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton, 1991), CB4 (Tamra Davis, 1993) and House Party (Chris Stokes, 1990).

FREEZING COLD MOVIES

6 – 13 Dec 2014

Who needs a wonderful life? In the run-up to Christmas, I picked these ice-cold classics as 'alternative' festive treats: Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973), The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925), and – on an ultra-rare imported 35mm print – The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968).

CITY VISIONS

25 Sep – 8 Oct 2014

I contributed to this season of films, talks and debates exploring modern cities around the world with screenings including Jean-Luc Godard's 2 or 3 Things I Know about Her (1967),  a film partially set in the recently built high-rise environment of the Paris banlieue; Jia Zhangke's bitter, bloody film about the after-affects of urbanisation and modernisation on the urban poor, A Touch of Sin (2013); a programme highlighting Jem Cohen's 30-year practice of picturing New York; and a special screening of Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) introduced by journalist and playwright Bonnie Greer.

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2013

16 – 24 Nov 2013

Once again in 2013, I rounded up a selection of the best new jazz features and documentaries, restorations and classics from the archive to complement the gigs in our Barbican Hall. Highlights this year were William Klein's 1969 documentary The Pan-African Festival of Algiers (pictured), with footage of legendary performances by Archie Shepp, Nina Simone and Miriam Makeba, and the UK premiere of a new documentary profile of Boogie Woogie piano legend James Booker, Bayou Maharajah (Lily Keber, 2013).

POP: IMAGES OF DESIRE

28 Nov – 4 Dec 2013

I co-curated this film series inspired by the Pop Art Design exhibition in the Barbican Gallery, celebrating the excitement, innovation and daring of the Pop years. We opted for a mix of sci-fi kitsch and European and US art cinema; among the bright and beautiful Pop gems we screened were 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), and Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971).

OBERHAUSEN ON TOUR

18 & 25 Jun 2013

In 2013 I produced the UK leg of the highlights tour from the Oberhausen Film Festival 2012. Founded in 1954, the Festival helped to launch the careers of esteemed filmmakers such as Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Roman Polanski.

THE FILM THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

19 Apr – 2 May 2013

On the occasion of this season celebrating 100 years of the Critics' Circle – a professional association of critics of cinema, drama, music, art, architecture and dance – I welcomed veteran film critic Derek Malcolm to introduce his chosen film, Ship of Theseus (Anand Ghandi, 2012).

DADA-ANIMATION

Fri 31 May 2013

Complementing The Bride and the Bachelors show in the Barbican Gallery, I screened this programme of early work by two pre-eminent directors of the American Underground, Robert Breer (1926–2011) and Stan VanDerBeek (1927–84), working in the spirit of Dadaist collage and abstraction, and featuring a healthy Dadaist sense of humour and the absurd. The programme included Science Friction (1959) and Jamestown Baloos (1958).

EXPERIMENTAL COLLAGE FILM

Tue 26 Mar 2013

I welcomed artist Geoffrey Farmer to introduce this screening on the opening night of his exhibition The Surgeon and the Photographer in the Barbican's Curve gallery. Farmer, whose work draws on collage and assemblage traditions, discussed the influence of found footage maestros Bruce Conner (1933–2008) and Arthur Lipsett (1936–86).