"A Film Flipped On Its Back": TEOTEIMH @ Black Sun Cinema this Friday

In the run up to the Black Sun Cinema screening of Alan Lambert's The End of The Earth Is My Home at Triskel Christchurch this Friday (details here), Alan has been interviewed by Film Irleland. Follow this link to discover why TEOTEIMH is "a film flipped on its back". And, if you're in Cork this Friday, please come along to this truly head-spinning sci-fi trip.

 

100 Years of Peter Cushing

A slightly belated word of tribute to one of cinema's most electrifying actors, one whose fascination only increases for me with time: Peter Cushing, who would have turned 100 yesterday.

Here are some splendid films he was in:

Nearly There...

View the new trailer here: http://vimeo.com/66856343

Black Sun Cinema Notes & News

On Friday May 31st, Black Sun Cinema, in partenrship with Triskel Christchurch, will present a head-spinning programme of experimental science fiction.

The End Of The Earth Is My Home (Alan Lambert, Ireland, 2012, 75 mins)

We are delighted to welcome Alan Lambert, who will be present to introduce and discuss his new film, The End Of The Earth Is My Home. One of the first Irish feature films to have been made through crowd funding, TEOTEIMH has emerged as quite unlike anything produced previously in Ireland. Set in a futuristic Asia of the mind, it is a trippy, visually audacious modern fantasy that takes inspiration from the Asian Monkey King stories and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as well as the writer/director’s own travel experiences. Although rooted in a sci-fi thriller premise involving an order of immortals and multiple time zones, and replete with car chases and assasinations, TEOTEIMH is more a sensory experience than a narrative. A pulsing kaleidoscsope of shifting visual and sonic rhythms, this 21st century phantasmagoria is one of the few films to truly explore the visionary potential of science fiction beyond the boundaries of traditional storytelling.

Its international cast, headed by Junshi Murakami, Dominique Monot and Mona Gamil, also features Black Sun’s own Vicky Langan in a pivotal role as the goddess Yama. The original soundtrack is by European Sensoria Band.

Click here to view the trailer.

Revisiting Solaris (Deimantas Narkevicius, Lithuania, 2007, 18 mins)

Selected by Alan Lambert to accompany TEOTEIMH, Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevicius’ Revisiting Solaris presents another poetic approach to science fiction material, albeit in a more contemplative, essayistic register. As the title suggests, this film references Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece Solaris (1972). An aged, wonderfully melancholic Donatis Banionis reprises his as role as the lead character in Solaris, forty-five years on. Narkevicius' film is an exploration of the final chapter of Stanislaw Lem's original novel, omitted by Tarkovsky from his film adaptation, which visits the surface of the planet Solaris.

For screening details and to book tickets, please visit:

http://triskelartscentre.ie/events/2339/the-end-of-the-earth-is-my-home/

In other news, Ed Krčma has written a terrific review of one of our earlier programmes, 'White Noise' curated by Florian Wüst, which appears on the front page of issue seven of Enclave Review, Cork's contemporary arts review sheet. From this screening, based around Wilhelm and Birgit Hein's materialist '70s filmmaking, Ed concludes:

While the early works, necessarily perhaps, cannot shock in the same way today as they did upon their initial reception, they remain potent and unexpected for other, perhaps more compelling reasons. Their mixture of weirdness and conviction still provides the potential for genuinely differential experience; and these enlivening opportunities are arguably less available today than they were in 1970, now that the effects of corporate media are even more pervasive, and the drive to instrumentalize experience even more powerful.

THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THE TERRORS OF THE MIND

Rouzbeh Rashidi's new feature film There Is No Escape From The Terrors of The Mind, in which I play a small role, is now completed.

I've followed Rouzbeh's work closely over the years; I greatly admire many of his films and have written about them more than once. Even in view of all this, Terrors has absolutely floored me. I have no doubt this is his masterpiece to date, the film that brings all the considerable promise of his work so far to full fruition. I'm still too overwhelmed by the experience of watching it to say much more, except that it unquestionably elevates Rouzbeh to the foremost rank of cinematic poets.   

GORGING LIMPET at Cork Midsummer Festival

A series of announcements about Gorging Limpet, the upcoming performance/installation by Karen Power and myself:

It will take place on the nights of June 27th, 28th and 29th at a warehouse unit in The Marina Park as part of Cork Midsummer Festival. For more details, or to book tickets, click here.

We are delighted to announce that Michael Higgins will be joining us in the performance, and as technical advisor on matters relating to the texturing and premature decaying of 16mm footage.

We've set up a Facebook page for the event (well, Karen has- my aversion to Facebook remains undiminished).

And a trailer for the performance can be viewed here.

Gorging Limpet is funded by an Arts Council Project Award and supported in kind by Cork Film Centre.

The Onset of GANGRENE

It all began with this photo of (left to right) Dean Kavanagh, myself and Rouzbeh Rashidi. It was taken last month during a very creative (and annihilatingly alcoholic) week when Dean and Rouzbeh were staying in Cork, both shooting material for their current feature films.

One of us pointed out that this photo needed to be an album cover. Taking his cue from this, Rouzbeh conceived Cinema Cyanide, a sound project comprised of the three of us.

And now our first effort, Gangrene, is complete and available to hear on Bandcamp. It contains three ten-minute tracks, one by each of us. My contribution is Recurring Fur.

Coming Soon to Black Sun Cinema...

http://teoteimh.com/

http://triskelartscentre.ie/events/2339/the-end-of-the-earth-is-my-home/