Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the North of England and the rest of the UK…

Monday – Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert 8pm @ Leaf Bold Street, Liverpool – £15

“Sex and death. Love and life. Family, fortune, faith, and fear. Guitar, voices, cello, sax, Roland, wolves. Leggings and jeggings, the multiverse and marshmallows.” So goes the blurb for the debut collaboration Here Lies the Body, by Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert, who make a welcome stop off in Liverpool tonight. Affecting, intimate and idiosyncratic vibes await.

Prince of Darkness (1987) 8.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool – £10.40/Concs

Perhaps not in the top tier of Carpenter’s oeuvre, Prince of Darkness is nonetheless an effective weaving together of ancient evil, and – at the time of its creation – contemporary scientific theory. Carpenter, inspired by his interest in quantum mechanics, has said: “I thought it would be interesting to create some sort of ultimate evil and combine it with the notion of matter and anti-matter. I thought it would be great to have an anti-God, namely a mirror opposite of God that would be totally evil. I started from that premise and worked in various ideas.”

Tuesday – Sjón 7pm @ Manchester Central Library – £7/£5

I first encountered Sjón’s writing with the slight (it comes in at fewer than 150 pages), but no less masterful for that, Moonstone: the boy who never was. It’s a diminutive wonder of a book set in the author’s native Iceland. Here Sjón and co-editor Ted Hodgkinson discuss Nordic literary identity, in reference to short the story anthology they compiled, The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North. The former also reads from his latest novel CoDex 1962.

Zuzu 7.30pm @ Jacaranda Records Phase 1, Liverpool – £7

Citing the likes of Grandaddy and Car Seat Headrest as inspirations, Liverpool-born Zuzu plays a hometown gig in support of EP Made On Earth By Humans, tonight. These latest tracks are of the catchy, hook-laden variety, all delivered – joyously, refreshingly – with no effort to mask the scouse accent.

Wednesday – Aesthetica Short Film Festival @ Venues Across York – Unlimited Pass £48/Two Day £30/One Day £16

The York-based celebration of short film returns to venues – grand, iconic and boutique – for its eighth year this week. Aside from the programmed 300 films, catch masterclasses from the likes of Aardman Animation, Industrial Light & Magic, Dazed and Confused and BBC Writers Room. Aspiring filmmakers can attend pitching sessions, where they can receive feedback from industry big hitters such as StudioCanal and Curzon Artificial Eye.

Thursday-Sunday – Synth Remix 8pm @ London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham – £10

Classical club night and concert series _Remix use “live performance and DJ sets to present the best of music from across genres”. Tonight kicks off the Synth Remix UK Tour which foregrounds and celebrates pioneering women of electronic music. Award-winning composer and performer Jo Thomas and BBC 6Music-featured audio-visual artist Olivia Louvel celebrate the legacy of composers including Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram. The tour continues with performances taking place on subsequent nights in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham respectively.

Friday-Sunday – Photo North Festival @ Harrogate Convention Centre – Three Day Pass £44/Day Pass £22/Concs

The inaugural Photo North Festival is setting out its stall this week to attract and engage everyone from the aficionado to the first-timer. With 20 exhibiting artists – including Tish Murtha, Jane Hilton and Tom Oldham – Festival Director Sharon Price, said “We’ve put our heart and soul into curating unique takes on three clear themes of music, war and marginalisation to make internationally-renowned photographic art accessible to all, as well as highlighting topical issues.” With partners including IWM, Redeye and Reuters, it’s reasonable to expect something for everyone.

Preview: John Walter: CAPSID 6pm @ HOME Manchester – FREE

In 2015, artist John Walter brought Alien Sex Club to a trio of venues in Liverpool, tackling the complexities of sexual health via his artistic practice. Now he returns to the North West with CAPSID, an exhibition looking at how ideas are transmitted between people – on social media, or in politics, for example – by looking at how the HIV virus infects human cells. Expect depictions of “viral replication” across film, animation, drawing, print, painting, sculpture, installation and costume.   

Saturday – Play-It-Again-Use-It-Together: Archive Hack Day 3pm @ Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool – FREE

Curator Rose Lejeune’s final commission of three in her New Perspectives strand. Here, Eileen Simpson and Ben White’s project Play It Again! Use It Together, takes as its starting point the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Popular Music (IPM) archive of over 80,000 records. This weekend sees the archive opened up to the interpretation of coders, electronic musicians and producers, who are invited to dive into the public domain samples using the open source code developed for the show. Aural experimentation awaits.

Sunday – Sheffield Doc/Fest: Shakedown (2018) Plus Q&A 6.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool – £10.40/Concs

Join director Leilah Weinraub as she discusses life at the titular 1990s/early ’00s strip club in debut feature Shakedown in a post screening Q&A at FACT. The film, carefully assembled from more than four hundred hours of raw footage Weinraub shot over the years, delves into the ‘high-femme performance’ found in the African-American queer scene gravitating there.

Mike Pinnington

Images from top: still from Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (1987); Zuzu, image courtesy the artist; poster for Synth Remix. Last image and feature image taken from John Walter’s Capsid, courtesy the artist

Channel 4’s Random Acts have gained a reputation for commissioning experimental, challenging and downright weird short films. As an exhibition of 200 works by some of its most talented, 16—24 year old filmmakers tours England, we showcase three of our favourites in full…

The Law of the Sea: Elmaz Ekrem & Dominika Ożyńska (above, 3:31 mins)

“I stopped fishing fish and started fishing people…” University for the Creative Arts Farnham alumni Elmaz Ekrem and Dominika Ozynska’s beautiful stop motion animation highlights the horrifying refugee crisis from the perspective of Greek fishermen. Familiar with working in dangerous waters around Lesvos to earn a living, these men have turned into untrained humanitarians – pulling terrified people to safety from capsizing and overcrowded boats. Using brushstrokes of thick paint to capture the relentless waves of the Aegean Sea, the animation depicts bobbing boats and tumbling fish alongside men, women and children in peril; the only evidence post-rescue are thousands of discarded life jackets washed ashore like driftwood.

This is an illuminating and gut-wrenching film that manages to convey the terror felt by rescuers and rescued alike, and how quickly the situation has become a normal part of daily life on the island — stuck in an impossible cycle of international politics and basic human need.

When Standing in a Queue: Thomas Payton Greene (3:02 mins)

Most have us have experienced it, and Thomas Payton Greene nails it – in all its awkward, soul-destroying magnificence. The Manchester School of Art graduate is the “smartest man in the Job Centre”: narrating a Job Seekers Back-to-Work style course and making us cry with laughter in the process. How has Maureen, the course leader, found herself in this seventh circle of Hell? Will Thomas ever form a band called The Young Beautiful Job Seeking Graduate Society? And is everyone else in the room secretly thinking about handjobs? WARNING: You’ll probably have cold, sweaty, post-traumatic flashbacks reliving your own Dole nightmare.

Keep an eye on Greene, who is currently making a documentary after winning the DBACE Film category in 2016.

The Rat King: Jess Dadds (3:38 mins)

Part-scifi, part-social documentary, part-comedy, University of Brighton graduates Jess Dadds and DOP Ezra Mills’ Scouse protagonist, Cam, personifies graduate reality. Namely, what the fuck am I doing? In conversation with an intelligent, alien being, Cam (aka The Rat King) describes his shit job – which pays the bills while he chases his dream in the creative industries – and how his kindness at work has backfired. This is a strange and achingly on-the-nose portrayal of the post-university experience – disappointing, and no guarantee of a career – but also our wider attitudes towards success and happiness under capitalism. Makes you wonder: if alien lifeforms really were studying us, Millennials in particular, what would their takeaway thoughts be about humanity?

Keep an eye out for Dadds’ next film: an upcoming work for Ignition as part of Random Acts.

Laura Robertson, Editor

Had a taste? See these films and many more at the Playback Touring Exhibition in association with Random Acts – touring Britain until March 2018

Tour continues at:

The Hive (Worcester) 1–21 September 2017

Watershed (Bristol) as part of Encounters Film Festival 19–24 September

University of Creative Arts Farnham 26 September–13 October

Kingston University Knights Park Campus 17 October–4 November

York Explore (York) as part of Aesthetica Short Film Festival 9–19 November

De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill-on-Sea) 11 November 2017–2 January 2018

mac Birmingham 7–24 January 2018

Peninsula Arts (Plymouth) 29 January–17 February 2018

Exeter College 31 January–18 February 2018

Swindon Central Library 23 February–10 March 2018

ICA (London) 21–25 March 2018

With American artist Suzanne Lacy’s epic new artwork due to premiere in September at the old Lancastrian mill where it was filmed, Jack Welsh takes us back nearly 12 months to recall its complex production. There to document the process, Welsh met Lacy and the many other people involved — including Sufi chanters and Shape Note singers, and the commissioning organisations who insisted that great art could happen in Pennine Lancashire…

As the train pulls into Brierfield station an imposing brick building dominates the landscape. Standing on the bank of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Brierfield Mill is a physical remnant of the once booming cotton industry in Pennine Lancashire; enabled by a heady mix of ideal climatic conditions and canny entrepreneurialism. For over 150 years the mill was the beating social and economic heart of Brierfield. As the textile industry slumped into a slow decline after the First World War, the mill rattled on until 2007 when the mill closed its gates forever.

I’ve been invited to attend three days of events at the former mill marking the culmination of Shapes of Water, Sounds of Hope a project, commissioned by Super Slow Way and In-Situ, by pioneering socially engaged artist Suzanne Lacy. In the biggest cultural gathering ever seen at Brierfield, over 500 people will be involved in making a film, tours of the mill and interviews before joining together for a mass closing banquet on Saturday evening. It also marks the mill’s last hurrah in its current industrial manifestation; work has started on the £32 million Northlight redevelopment that will repurpose it as a ‘destination’, including a luxury hotel, spa, retail units, Burnley FC’s community training facility, community leisure centre and Lancashire Adult Learning’s county offices.

Lacy is in Brierfield due to Super Slow Way, an ambitious arts commissioning programme working with the diverse communities situated along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Since its inception in 2015, Super Slow Way has brought a range of local, national and international artists and producers to the region. From artist Najia Bagi working with the young homeless charity Nightsafe in Blackburn, to the recent Kinara Festival, a celebration of Islamic culture in the region, Super Slow Way projects have embraced socially engaged practice as a vehicle to explore art means to those who live in Pennine Lancashire.

People are at the core of Super Slow Way. By bringing artists together with communities, it aims to engage and challenge people who feel that culture isn’t for them; that it is somehow irrelevant from their everyday lives. This approach invests in long-term conversations and events taking place on the ground, within the fabric of communities, from boxing clubs to care homes. A recent musical celebration marking the bicentenary of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, and its transformation from the lifeblood of the Industrial Revolution to a contemporary leisure environment, paid homage to the conceptual and geographical importance of the canal to the programme. The complex relationship between communities and place has been the catalyst for many Super Slow Way projects; Brierfield Mill is no exception.

Today, in sharp contrast to the limbo it has been suspended in since 2007, the mill is a hive of bustling activity. The vast ground floor space is being power cleaned, with rows of cabaret tables and identical chairs stacked up ahead of Saturday’s banquet. On the first floor, Lacy’s technical team are using a scissor lift to install a lighting and camera rig to the ceiling. Across the room, volunteers are repainting the fading turquoise walls; nearby, preparations are underway for a former mill workers tea later that afternoon.

As part of the welcoming former mill workers back to their old stomping ground, a row of flat-screen monitors have been carefully installed against load-bearing pillars. Each monitor features several different interviews recorded with local Pendle residents, and ex-mill workers, across diverse ethnic backgrounds. Filmed on site, these high-resolution recordings bring together differing vantage points of Pendle, from working life at the mill to people’s individual hopes for the region, prompted by questions agreed with Massimiliano Mollona, lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, and one of the project’s many collaborators.

I’m spending the afternoon shadowing filmmaker Graham Kay as he shoots more film interviews. Along with Super Slow Way’s Elena Adorni, they’ve conducted 51 interviews so far in different parts of the mill – at Lacy’s request – to capture the different textures, acoustics and feelings of this extraordinary building. Today they are filming in an atmospheric but dilapidated side-room, complete with layers of worn-down concrete and broken windows. Adorning the wall is a stunning remnant; a torn patch of printed wallpaper adorned with colourful swirling flowers – possibly from the 1960s – which is now an archaeological relic. In between shoots we speculate what this small non-industrial room was originally used for.

I ask Graham about any general themes that have emerged during the interviews. Graham says the impact of the mill’s closure has been much discussed: “The mill, as a social habitat, was a natural place to form bonds across cultures; this naturally percolated in daily life in the town. Once it closed, this linkage naturally eroded and fuelled the segregation we see today.”

I’ve arrived shortly before Suzanne Lacy is scheduled to interview Super Slow Way director Laurie Peake’s mother, Jean, who worked at the mill. Lacy enters the room with Jean and Laurie. Once Jean is seated and the camera ready, Lacy begins a direct but warm line of questioning; she is genuinely interested in Jean’s rich memories. Jean regales us with how, as a young girl, the sound of mill workers’ iron clogs pounding up the street signalled the start of her school day. She explains how she left school at 14, on a Friday afternoon, and then started working at the mill the following Monday. “You were excited by going to the mill and by growing up; you couldn’t wait to have a loom of your own.” She amusingly paints life at the mill as hard work but underpinned by a rich community spirit: “It was non-stop gossip all day. We used lip-reading and sign language to communicate over the deafening noise of the looms. I miss the camaraderie; it was great.”

Next to be interviewed is Dudley, a pleasant and jovial Brierfield resident, and Richard, a lollipop man who moved to Nelson from London three years ago. Dudley tells of his experiences living in the area and how he’s developed a friendship with the Sufi community through involvement at Nelson’s Free Spiritual Centre, a community hub that aims to encourage cohesion amongst local people, regardless of their background.

Dudley is open-minded and speaks honestly about cultural divides within Brierfield but speaks warmly of a recent day trip walking with the Sufi community. “They don’t drink, they don’t swear but I’ve never laughed so much in my life; they are welcoming and genuine people.” Richard believes that a community spirit does exist but also emphasises the importance of community platforms to support local integration. He cites the Free Spiritual Centre’s Friendship Cafe in Nelson, a monthly free and inclusive event aimed at encouraging conversation over hearty home-cooked food.

After watching several interviews being recorded, as well as those on the monitors, I’m struck by the range of perspectives and life experiences captured. Ranging from White British locals to families of Pakistani machine operators that arrived after the Commonwealth Immigrants Act was passed in 1962, these interviews constitute an important anthropological record of contemporary Pendle. Importantly, they also demonstrate that the family trees of many Pendle residents are firmly rooted in the mill’s industrial soil.

Despite the dominance of the mill within Brierfield life, for many residents it has always been off limits, even when it was operational. The chance to go beyond the locked gates for a two-day open house has piqued the interest of both residents and heritage aficionados. Volunteers Zoya and Tayeba, from Brierfield Action in the Community, are tasked with leading culturally mixed groups of 10-15 people around the mill each hour. Enthusiastic and well informed, I’m surprised to later learn that Zoya and Tayeba have only been with the project for one month acting as project ambassadors in the Asian community. They astutely weave historical mill facts with good-hearted banter. As one of the early integrated cotton mills, which combined the processes of both spinning and weaving, the mill housed over 2,000 workers and substantial industrial machinery; it’s no surprise that these colossal spaces are astonishing. As the group digests the sheer size of a former spinning room, local Nasheed artist Hussnain Hanif slowly walks across the space shattering the silence by singing. His voice is both haunting and beautiful; it’s a poignant moment, one that fleetingly humanises this now transitional space. Warm applause follows.

Over Thursday and Friday, I meet several people who have returned to their former stomping ground for the tours. Bubbly sisters Jean and Marilyn, recant hilarious and poignant stories of hijinks working in the mill as young women – alongside backbreaking hard work. On the same tour I meet Antony. After leaving school, his first job was scraping down looms and cutting waste at the mill. He’s back for the first time since leaving. He explains how, as a naïve youngster, he was first unaware of natural working divides between Asian and white workers across departments. With many Asian workers having migrated without being able to speak English, this wasn’t a surprise. Interestingly, he reveals that the room where Graham and Claire are filming was a staff café; the scrap of wallpaper suddenly makes sense.

Each tour concludes at masterplans for the new Northlight development installed on the first floor. For the majority of attendees, it’s the first real encounter with the scheme that could potentially dramatically alter their community. These computer-generated mock-ups show how the mill will be transformed and what will feature at the new site. Arguably prompted by lack of Asian faces featured in these computer aided illustrations, Zoya and Tayeba wrap up by asking attendees if they believe new plans will improve diversity in the area? There’s an awkward silence. Conversations continue after the tour with everyone in agreement that the development is much needed. Yet the wider issues in Pendle won’t be solved by this regenerative intervention alone; the importance of communities actively discussing and shaping their own future is paramount.

In partnership with Super Slow Way, In-Situ, an organisation greatly influenced by Lacy’s career, first approached the artist and social activist in early 2015 about working in Brierfield, as part of their artist-in-residence programme. Laurie Peake saw commissioning Lacy, a pioneer of socially engaged practice in both practice and theory, as a statement of artistic intent and an opportunity for In-Situ to work at previously untested scale. Since the 1970s, Lacy has shaped social engagement as an art form through a prolific career spanning performance, video, critical theory and community practices. Lacy’s work grows from engaging with the social and urban issues pertinent to the community she collaborates with. She begins by asking: what is it that the community needs most? This simple question situates the context for the work.

Lacy admits she didn’t know where Brierfield was in England but was intrigued by research into the mill and how its closure fuelled an increasing divide between White and Asian communities who used to work together everyday. These complex social issues offered the chance for Lacy to collaborate with local gatekeepers and communities to flesh out an idea over an extended period. “I never arrive anywhere with a set idea for the community. Cultural partners within the community are identified with relationships developing over time. Paul Hartley, In-Situ, Laurie Peake and Super Slow Way are critical partners in this project”, Lacy explains.

Like Lacy’s previous works, Shapes of Water… comprises of several elements, including video, performance and mass spectacle. However, rather than filming the final performance in its own right, as with works such as The Crystal Quilt (1985-87), Lacy pushes the idea of a community making its own film. I ask Lacy what this means: “I had to ask myself, how would a film shoot best serve the people of Brierfield? It combines community meaning, built up through long-term discussions and relationship building over the past 18 months, with aesthetic elements of the performance, and filming it.” These unseen discussions on the ground constitute a vital part of the work itself.

Tate Modern curator, Catherine Wood, considers Lacy to be an artist who uses aesthetics to make things happen in life. In order to deliver a project that blurs the boundaries between artwork and social intervention, Lacy wears several hats simultaneously, from project manager to artist. Does this create any tension? “The key is being a community developer while being an aesthetic producer,” says Lacy. “You need someone to make the call on spending £2,000 on identical chairs, for example, and to negotiate what a community wants/needs while identifying a true path for the project.” From the framing of the video interviews to the practical aspects of the shoot, Lacy possesses crystal-clear vision about how the project will manifest within the globalised contemporary artworld.

For those who continue to live in Pendle after the banquet has long been cleared away, the question of legacy is highly pertinent. Rauf Bashir is Project Manager for Building Bridges Pendle, and a director of the Free Spiritual Centre. As an active community worker for 20 years, Bashir has been a key facilitator for the Asian community in Pendle. He explains how his involvement in the project began last winter at Brierfield Community Centre. “Laurie Peake came to a Sufi event in the Centre last year. She saw Sufi chanting (dhikr) as a form of communal engagement forum and offered to put me in touch with Suzanne. After these conversations began, we all worked together to put meat on the bones.”

Lacy and Bashir worked closely with Paul Hartley on bringing the Dhikr and Shape Note traditions, two historically rich and established forms of community expression, together in Pendle. Bashir stresses the importance of Professor Ron Pen, an expert of early musical forms at the University of Kentucky, to this process. Pen visited Nelson with Lacy at her second event exploring the community experience. Over dinner, Pen providing context about Shape Note as a form of expression and its historical links to Pennine Lancashire. “The first public participation event was crucial in getting people to realise the commonalities between Sufi and Shape Note.” Crucially, Pen also developed a strong relationship with the Sufi community, further solidifying the collaborative core of the project.

Bashir explains how after five meetings, conversations were gently steered towards pressing community issues. “We asked people to share their thoughts anonymously and then put these questions forward for people to answer, such as: ‘why does Pendle feel so downtrodden?’ and ‘why are Asians not integrating in the wider community?’ We found this model of raising difficult questions in a safe environment was highly productive.” As with many of Lacy’s previous works, such as Between the Door and The Street (2013), participants at the banquet will be asked to consider these questions through collective conversation.

Later I catch up with Paul Hartley, a founding director of In-Situ, at the project base in Pendle Town Hall (a modest former civic building amusingly dubbed City Hall by Lacy). Since forming in 2012, In-Situ has intimately worked with communities in Pendle to embed art within the fabric of everyday life. He explains how the project has developed over the last 18 months: “Shape Note was initially a hook to engage the local community. Suzanne became interested in Rauf’s Sufi group and the similarities through vocalisation, faith and food.”

Hartley recalls the first meeting between Lacy and potential local participants. As a lead partner, the success of the project hinged on In-Situ’s ability to generate participants across Pendle; both Hartley and Lacy knew it. “Thankfully, 100 people from across communities made it and Suzanne was impressed: the project could be done.” Hartley says. “It’s taken In-Situ years to build these networks within the Pendle community.”

The process hasn’t been without challenges. Hartley explains how the second community dinner with Lacy and Ron Pen led to tense moments between Asian and white communities over religious symbolism and sacred phrases used in Sufi chanting. Yet these diverse participatory events became forums for understanding.

Hartley also acknowledges the importance of Rauf Bashir in collaborative cross-community working and the presence of Ron Pen in helping local groups get to grips with Shape Note – and drumming home the importance of persevering: “A core kept coming to rehearsal sessions and with professional singers supporting them during filming, it will be fine.” Interestingly, Hartley suggests that learning Shape Note was itself a challenge from Lacy to help keep communities engaged rather than just simply attending meetings.

For Hartley, intensively working with Lacy has prompted positive introspection about In-Situ’s own working practices. “In-Situ prefers slow interaction and building audiences over time, which is in contrast to Suzanne’s projects that emphasise scale and the spectacle. I’ve had deep discussions with Suzanne regarding this; we’re still digesting it in regards to In-Situ’s future work.” The impact of working with an artist with the international calibre of Lacy has impacted Hartley professionally. “I’ve definitely developed my own leadership elements, actively encouraging others and it has pushed me to develop new partnerships in the area. We’ve had about 850 people genuinely engaged in the project – that’s what it’s all about.” Hartley dashes off. Half an hour later he is upstairs in the mill speaking to stakeholders at the official launch of mill redevelopment. After building a positive relationship with developers Barnfield Construction, In-Situ will have a new office on the site: a clear indication of how culture can influence Brierfield’s new development.

Hartley and Bashir are two influential figures in Pendle. They are highly experienced in working alongside communities and possess strong emotive ties to the area (both men had parents who worked at Brierfield Mill.) Over 18 months they’ve worked with Lacy and countless others to develop the project alongside their existing work. By beginning to ask difficult questions in the right environment, Bashir hopes Shapes of Water… will result in positive steps towards Pendle’s diverse communities living together, rather than side-by-side. “Change won’t happen overnight. But even if we identify 20 key issues in the area, and 12 months on we’ve only managed to address five, that’s real progress.”

I arrive on Saturday morning – the final day – to find the mill crackling with energy. Shape Note singers are here after a social breakfast at City Hall, ready to be filmed. I’m escorted upstairs to observe from audience seating. With the cameras rigged up and production team locked in delivery mode, there’s no mistaking that I’m on a film set now. Over the next few hours, both Shape Note and Sufi chanting will be filmed from multiple different angles in an artistic representation that brings together two distinct cultural traditions in a gesture of solidarity.

When the order is given for quiet on the set, a hush descends and the Shape Note singers are filmed walking across the stone floor to the “hollow square” seating chair arrangement. This traditional seating arrangement allows singers to face each other, with each side delivering a different vocal pitch. In a democratic gesture, there is no leader in Shape Note singing, with any group member free to stand in the middle and lead.

Once seated, someone cracks a joke to ease the nerves. As the singing starts, the reverberating acoustics sparks the room into life, briefly hinting at the industrial noise that was the soundtrack of mill life. There are many different people here today. I’m sitting next to Carmel and Margaret who are part of Secret Singers – a local amateur singing group keen to try Shape Note – to professional singers invited from across the UK to support the performance. After several takes from multiple angles, Carmel, Margaret and many others, including members of the Sufi community dressed in traditional attire, join an expanded hollow square for an inclusive performance. It’s aesthetically, spiritually – and vocally – powerful.

After lunch, the hollow square is reconfigured into the traditional circle associated with Sufi chanting – a symbol emphasising equality and communality between the group, whether at home or in the mosque. I spot Dudley taking his place. As the chanting starts, slipping between meditative and powerful vocal movements, the singers are supremely focused on the act. It’s an enlightening spectacle; a normally private act of spiritual contemplation brought into the public domain. Once the main chanting has been captured, all attendees are invited to take part in a mass group session. Ron Pen gives us a motivation pep talk to ease any angst (which doesn’t really help). After a successful rendition of Sufi chanting, the collective relief is palatable and smiling faces flash across the circle. That wasn’t so bad now, was it?

The filming ends with a special fusion performance, led by Pen, Bashir and the experienced singers, that brings together these two unique forms of vocal expression. With Sufi and Shape Note singers facing each other, they exchange and then unite: a sonic gesture of understanding and humanity between two forms of vocal expression and cultures. It will be interesting to see how Lacy edits the final film, which will premiere at Brierfield in September 2017 before been screened at a major contemporary gallery.

Once the filming wraps, participants drift downstairs to the final event: the banquet. The ground floor of the mill has been completely transformed into a gala dinner venue offset by atmospheric shades of purple spotlights. Hundreds of people, a balanced mix of White and Asian residents, make their way to their seats. I sit on a table with several members of the Free Spiritual Centre, including Shaz, who warmly greets me. Shaz explains the beliefs and work of the Sufi community, as well as the importance of eating together: “In Sufism, we believe in bringing people to live together in peace and harmony. Food is very important – we believe sharing food represents serving humanity.” Shaz has nothing but praise for the impact Shapes of Water… has had: “It’s been one year since I became involved and it has been mesmerising.”

As food arrives the table dissolves into informal chat, from work to football. Shortly afterwards, our allocated questions from the community sessions arrive in envelopes. Our table is tasked with answering “Why do both White and Asian communities feel threatened by each other?” and “how can we create opportunities to work together collaboratively to reduced tensions in the local area?” The response to the first question takes issues with that assumption. Our table believes supporting opportunities for increasing sport and activity between communities will help cohesion. The discussions are genuine but, in the midst of the event, I think of the different conversations underway across the room and how these will be captured and followed up.

Reflecting back across three hectic days in a chilly, disused mill in late September, I’m staggeringly aware it’s a difficult task to contextualise what has happened here, never mind over 18 months!

In an area in which 63.2% of voters supported leaving the European Union in June, there are many social and cultural issues that require sustained, long-term work to address. No one is claiming that this project will magically solve anything. But what it has done, significantly, is to forge new spaces for community dialogue and strengthen the cultural and social ecology of Pendle. This is important. The closure of libraries and museums across the region represents a real threat to places where communities talk, debate and exist together.

What marks Lacy out as an exceptional artist is her ability to place people at the heart of her wider artistic vision; the interviews, tours, openings, film shoot and banquet are all fragments of a highly complex mosaic that stretches far beyond a dark projection room in a gallery. A real legacy is the partnerships developed and increased capacity and confidence of those who work here. As Lacy reflects in the project publication: “In the best result for an artist, they [partners such as Hartley and Bashir] have taken this as a support for their on-going efforts and co-created meaning to suit the larger project of forging a better future.” The challenge now for Super Slow Way, In-Situ, the Free Spiritual Centre and those working across the area is to capitalise on this and continue to work alongside communities to shape the future of the area: Shapes of Water, Sounds of Hope does appear to be an apt title.

Jack Welsh

The public premiere of Suzanne Lacy’s The Circle And The Square will be held on Thursday 14th September from 5–8pm at Northlight Mill, Brierfield, BB9 5PL. The installation will be accompanied by presentations of Shape Note, Dhikr, Nasheed and mill ballads. Refreshments will be served

RSVP by emailing laura[at]superslowway.org.uk

The installation will be open to the public from 15–23 September 2017, from 4–7pm Monday–Friday, and 11am–4pm Saturday and Sunday — FREE entry

Learn more about Super Slow Way’s projects on their website

Read: “Why can’t great art happen here in Pennine Lancashire?” Introducing: Super Slow Way

Images from top: 1–4 courtesy Chris Payne; showing the performance of Sufi chanters and Shape Note singers at Briefield Mill; behind the scenes; artist Suzanne Lacy with Paul Hartley and Kerry Morris; Ron Pen talking to Rauf Bashir

Second from bottom: Artist Suzanne Lacy in Brierfield library: Super Slow Way: Pennine Lancashire, courtesy William Titley. Final image, by Charlotte Graham

Commentaries on the contemporary world — from the “robot apocalypse”, to finite natural resources, to the threats of indiscriminate terror attacks — encapsulated this year’s FutureEverything Festival, finds Vanessa Wheeler…

FutureEverything Festival has taken place in Manchester every year since 1995, traversing through science and the arts with one aim in mind: to unravel the future. The first day of the festival — a mixture of live art and a conference of keynote speakers — saw a collaboration of scientists, creators, environmentalists, artists and performers all coming together to explore this year’s climate change theme, cryptically entitled Less and More.

First, the conference at Manchester Town Hall. “We are intelligence agents”, announced Nelly Ben Hayoun; kicking off a series of morning talks about Intelligence: making sense of it, controlling it and avoiding disasters. Ben Hayoun herself is a human wonder-woman; a director and ‘designer of experiences’ at the SETI Institute, immersing herself in a plethora of projects, like directing the International Space Orchestra, and working at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. She’s even directed and performed in her own film, Disaster Playground (2015). But more to the point, Ben Hayoun exampled the sensational achievements that can be crafted from human intelligence alone.

Looking at Artificial Intelligence, anthropologist Lydia Nicholas and Internet artist Darius Kazemi spoke in contrast about AI’s contentious role within society. As Kazemi put it, “the robot apocalypse has been here for centuries”; to which Nicholas elaborated that AI has taken over the world, just “not in the way we understand”. Nicholas used her background in health to highlight big data collection being an essential manifestation of AI, whereas Kazemi spoke of the history of algorithms, from the groundbreaking Alpha Go (the first computer to ever beat a human at the game of Go) to algebra; algorithms which he uses today to create comedy ‘bots’ on Twitter (he prefers you call his bots ‘alien’ or ‘anthropogenic’ intelligence rather than ‘artificial’, since he doesn’t believe in the difference between natural and unnatural).

After discussing the role of the creator in the responsibility of AI — a discussion which was reminiscent of AL and AL’s film about Alan Turing, which was also recently hosted in this city – the talk concluded with Nicholas explaining our complex relationship with this specific form of intelligence: “We communicate different kinds of identities. Everything is technology and everything is natural.”

Earth, afternoon talks focused on the festival theme of climate change and environmentalism, was sprinkled with speakers such as Dr Carlos Buontempo of the Met Office and local Manchester City Councillor Kate Chappell. Scientist Alice Bell stood out; she inspired the audience with her 10:10 projects, which not only fight climate change head-on, through the widespread distribution of solar panels, but actually encourage everyday people to buy shares in their local renewable power sources. Back in 2012, Tate Modern was gifted with a 54ft, one-and-a-half tonne wind turbine as a form of protest after it renewed its sponsorship with oil company BP, and whilst Bell told this anecdote humorously, it does underline how seriously communities and individuals take climate change in comparison to the nonchalant attitude that big businesses carry regarding our finite natural resources.

Unsurprisingly, the series of Earth talks were simply not as grasping as their predecessor, despite the entire event being geared as a platform to discuss one of the biggest threats to our future. Perhaps that says more about the festival-goers than FutureEverything itself; even at a festival curated to address climate change, people would rather wander off and enjoy the ‘fun’ bits.

One installation that grabbed the attention of everyone, regardless, was Project Ukko: an aesthetically stunning visualisation of wind data produced amongst others by the Met Office and Barcelona Supercomuting Center (BSC). Aiming to support wind farm operators and wind energy traders in making decisions (such as when to plan maintenance and where to invest in new wind farms), millions of data inputs were brought to life, weaving seamlessly into moving patterns via large projection. The result was hypnotising.

Equally. Smoke Signals, hidden away at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, was a live, sculptural piece that threw the festival on a pleasant tangent. Using the data of seven arts organisations, a wooden apparatus billowed smoke every time the data set moved or changed; heavily absorbed into the dark surroundings and accompanied by sub-sonic frequencies. Created by artist duo Ed Carter and David Cranmer, this at first archaic performance provided a vital sanctuary amidst a hectic festival; giving time to reflect on debates around information sharing, the climate crisis and technology that evolves too fast to keep up with.

Arguably the magnum opus of FutureEverything — a sold-out world premiere by Gazelle Twin entitled Kingdom Come — was even more strange and glorious than expected. Compressed into the back of Manchester Art Gallery, hundreds watched as the female musician and an anonymous performer stripped themselves of gym wear to reveal grey suits, all whilst running nonstop on exercise treadmills. Heavy beats and deep vocals by Gazelle Twin were paired with a projected film by Chris Turner and Tash Tung; shots of extreme violence and terrorism were interjected with clips of savage consumer crowds and short videos of comic relief. The sound of guns reloading was drowned out only by the hacking coughs of the performers onstage.

Such commentaries on the contemporary world — from the maladjusted pressures of consumer capitalist culture, to the threats of arbitrary violence and indiscriminate terror attacks — encapsulated Kingdom Come’s urban nightmare, inspired by J.G. Ballard’s psychogeographic novel of the same name. Just as the audience were beginning to process the abstruse social commentary — and interesting giving the festival title, Less and More – Gazelle Twin stepped into the elevator and simply disappeared; a denouement that perhaps created more questions than it answered.

Vanessa Wheeler

Vanessa saw FutureEverything Festival on Thursday 31 March 2016

In its fifth year of rapid-fire programming, Jack Roe finds York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival still pushing a welcoming, high quality offer – but is less impressed by the advertising category…

Five years on and with its BAFTA qualification status (awarded in 2014) still something of a novelty, the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) has become a well regarded feature of York’s cultural calendar. My initial expectations of a city full of filmmakers and short film enthusiasts were of those furtively scurrying around an ambivalent city, meeting in secret screening rooms and identified only by (rather fetching) yellow lanyards, and loudly expressed opinions about the need for careful exposition and economic storytelling.

This, thankfully, was shattered when a member of train station staff, the hotel receptionist and a random passerby all helped me to find the festival hub within half an hour of my arrival. The combination of artistic ambition and the charm of the local environs was immediately and strikingly apparent; here was the sense that ASFF is an event that embraces and is embraced by its location.

With over 300 short films in the programme, ASFF 2015 covered a range of genres — from experimental to thrillers to music videos — and topics — including astronauts, the grim reaper and the sex industry. As with any festival worth its salt, any attempt to experience the entire scope of the event would be fruitless and yet, again in keeping with good festival experiences, any and every individual sampling of the goings on would assuredly be rewarding in its own way.

The first thing that should be noted is the quality of the festival staff. Instead of po-faced teenaged volunteers working on UCAS applications and greeting enquiries with a sigh (as the cynics among us might expect), this was a team well informed and engaged, more than happy to help the legions of international visitors plan a way through a packed programme. The venues themselves were also noteworthy; a mix of locations in turn innovative, stately, charming and labyrinthine that had obviously been selected with some care in order to show the best of York to even the most preoccupied guest. It is clear, from the classical grandeur of St John’s University and the Grand Opera House, to the more contemporary Thirteen Thirty One — a courtyard pub/bistro whose owners are themselves filmmakers — that the curators of ASFF hold this city dear, and well they should.

But what of the short films themselves? The lasting impression that I took from the screenings I attended was the range of standards in production quality, from professional to amateur that speaks to something of the universal attraction and accessibility of a medium that can, through its attendant logistical and collaborative challenges, seem remote. The films I found most affecting and enjoyable included award-winning student documentary A Wee Night In (Stu Edwards, UK): a rare, human portrait of later life shot with celluloid warmth and real affection for its subjects. How I Didn’t Become A Piano Player (Tomasso Pitta, UK) is a comedy played for subtle charm rather than belly laughs, and with more than a nod towards the mediocrity that was such a staple of mid-1990s working-class life, since washed out by rose tinted nostalgia. It was also given the Best Comedy award at the festival finale.

Elsewhere, and perhaps inevitably, elements of the festival were less impressive. The inclusion of an advertising category, wherein whatever artistry and skill is incorporated in the film itself is superseded by its obvious attempts at capital gain, felt a little jarring in the midst of such a wide-eyed event. There were also a couple of oddities in the film programme from overblown comedies — like Casey and the Death Pool (Margaret Anderson, USA) – to indulgent thrillers – Suspicions (Alexander Birrell, UK). It feels churlish to focus on such missteps when the overall quality was accomplished. On the other hand, because of the rapid-fire programming, the inclusion of such films left a heightened sense of precious time spent.

The festival was, for me, distilled in the moment I was guided around the labyrinthine St John’s campus by a local; at an advantage, he said, because of living in town and being able to drop in whenever he felt like it over the weekend. Comparing notes there in the dark outside the screening room both before and after the session, I was reminded that some of the joy in film is best expressed in shared moments. Film is a necessarily collaborative form of expression, from the shared inspiration and workload to the enjoyment in interacting with a similarly enthused audience. At every stage, ASFF succeeded in bringing people together; a fittingly communal expression of an intrinsically communal art form.

Jack Roe

Jack saw Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) Thursday 5-Sunday 8 November 2015 at venues across York — single ticket screenings £5/4; one day festival pass £15/13.50; four day unlimited screening pass £30/27

Full programme of screenings, masterclasses and venues here

Read Jack’s preview highlights here

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the arts listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Tuesday — Gong 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £17.50

An infamously eccentric prog-jazz ensemble with rotating band members, Gong are best known for their Radio Gnome Trilogy — albums Flying Teapots, Angel’s Egg and You. Formed and made famous by Australian musician Daevid Allen in 1967, who sadly passed away earlier this year, expect a mad fusion of sax, classical and cosmic guitar.

Wednesday — University of Liverpool: 50 Years of Music Celebration Concert With Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 1pm @ Victoria Gallery & Museum  – FREE

As part of the university’s popular free lunchtime concerts, and organised by the School of Music, enjoy an hour-long celebratory concert in one of their most beautiful venues. Marking 50 years of music making and learning by staff and students alike, expect special guests from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thursday —  Human Futures Exposition @ FACT, Liverpool — Ticket Prices Vary

Inspired by eight international artists and their recent residency findings, FACT ask us to re-evaluate how we see our surroundings this month with a special pop-up exhibition and co-current talks and workshops. Highlights include tonight’s MediaLab workshop (6-8pm/third floor) with Canadian artist Sebastien Pierre on the future of privacy and sharing; tomorrow, see ‘Thrill Engineer’ and BBC broadcaster Brendan Walker (4-5.30pm/Screen 2 /£10) discuss entertainment as an important catalyst for innovation, across TV, theme parks, art galleries, museums and more… Until 25 Nov 2015.

Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) @ Venues Across York — Single Ticket Screenings £5/4; One Day Festival Pass £15/13.50; Four Day Unlimited Screening Pass £30/27

Astronauts, the grim reaper and the sex industry all play muse to a huge selection of short films at this weekend’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) — an annual ode to short filmmaking which takes over York for the fifth year running. Over 300 films, over four days, across 15 city-wide venues, featuring content from countries as diverse as China and Brazil, and in genres spanning dance to thrillers, comedy to fashion. See our highlights here; until Sunday.

Exhibition Opening: The Casual Gesture 6-8.30pm @ Standpoint Gallery, London — FREE

How to define the casual gesture? An offhand attitude? The light-touch? A point of departure for their new exhibition, curators Eye-Eye (Flore Nové-Josserand and Thorbjørn Andersen) have invited a gang of British artists to respond, in their own, intangible ways — including Liverpool’s Laurence Payot plus Claudia Djabbari, Florian Meisenberg, Grégoire Motte, Philip Ewe, Luke McCreadie and Bruce McLean.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: Anne Hardy: FIELD 6pm @ Modern Art Oxford — FREE

British artist Anne Hardy has transformed the MAO gallery into a series of landscapes, ‘Fields’ or ‘physically existent head spaces’, using wood, concrete, carpet, found materials, photography, text, light, colour and sound. Join her and curator Katrina Brown tonight as they discuss her processes and influences, which include literary giants JG Ballard, Tom McCarthy and Haruki Murakami. Exhibition open from 7pm.

Saturday — Alien Sex Club Event: Frances Disley 2pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool — FREE

As part of Homotopia’s main exhibition Alien Sex Club — which explores the relationship between visual culture and HIV today — join artist Frances Disley (The Royal Standard/MODEL/Fine Art at Liverpool Hope University) and Dr Valerie Delpech (consultant epidemiologist at the Health Protection Agency/Keele University) as they demisify the jargon and statistics associated with HIV and the factors contributing to its transmission.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Sunday – The Time Is Now Season: Persepolis (2007) + Zine Workshop 5.30-9pm @ A Small Cinema, Liverpool – £3/4

An Oscar-nominated, animated coming-of-age story, Persepolis’ focus is Marji: a precocious young rebel and punk rock fan who finds herself at odds with the harsh political oppression of Iran. A beautifully visualised, unconventional film about growing pains, first love and family bonds, screened as part of a national season exploring the role women play in affecting change. Expect a pop-up from Salford Zine Library plus a zine-making workshop led by Cherry Styles of The Chapess/Synchronise Witches.

The Magic Band Play The Music Of Captain Beefheart 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £18.50

The second avant-garde, legendary act to play the Kaz this week: Captain Beefheart, aka artist and musician Don Van Vliet, may have gone to the great psychedelia cloud in the sky, but his Magic Band (a rotating ensemble since 1965) live on. Tonight, expect original members Mark ‘Rockette Morton’ Boston and John ‘Drumbo’ French join forces with guitarists Eric Klerks and Max Kutner and drummer Andrew Niven to re-visit classic Beefheart tunes: chaotic prog-rock at its best.

Laura Robertson

Astronauts, the grim reaper and the sex industry all play muse to a huge selection of short films at York’s annual homage to cinema, finds Jack Roe…

On first impression, it seems the most prominent aspect of this weekend’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) — an annual ode to short filmmaking which takes over York for the fifth year running — is scale. Over 300 films, over four days, across 15 city-wide venues, featuring content from countries as diverse as China and Brazil, and in genres spanning dance to thrillers, comedy to fashion. It becomes immediately obvious that this a project of ambition, wherein its plaintive tag-line ‘Explore York, Experience Film’ will be well served. In fact, with a glance over the programme it would seem fairly difficult to avoid doing either.

From masterclasses from some of the most prominent organisations in Britain — Channel 4, Ridley Scott Associates and Film London among them — plus various meet and greets and workshops spaced throughout the weekend, this is an experience as rewarding to creators as well as consumers and cineastes.

Our highlights include Robbie Gibbon (Doctor Who, My Mad Fat Diary) on the craft and technology of film editing (7/11); Tim Pope (David Bowie, Fatboy Slim) on breaking into the music video industry (7/11); Dogwoof (The Act Of Killing, Dreams of a Life) on the realities of promoting and selling documentary films to international audiences (6/11); plus the Meet The Festivals party (6/11) including guests from Raindance, London Short Film Festival and ECU.

As far as the screenings are concerned, the animation selection is a particular draw; from the humorous — The Voice Over (Dadomani Studio, Italy, below) — to the surreal — Dji. Death Sails (Dmitri Voloshin, Moldova), imagining a grim reaper who isn’t very good at his job – to the expansive — Infinite Horizon (Stephen Simmonds, UK), which attempts to visualize The Overview Effect, experienced by some astronauts when seeing the earth from space for the first time. The idea that animation is unencumbered by the same budget and technology constraints as live action, and therefore freer to explore expression and imagination, is truly enforced at ASFF.

Elsewhere, the wide-ranging artists’ film category promises creative takes on topical contemporary subjects, such as gender fluidity — The Space in Between (Lucy Brydon, UK) — and female objectification — He’s the Best (Tamyka Smith, USA). Someone That I’m Not (various, UK), as a key example, promises to lift the lid on a statistic: 6% of students are working in the sex industry in order to cope with their fees. This a documentary premise that feels vital in the contemporary socio-political climate.

For those that enjoy a little discomfort in their viewing experience, look to Roadkiller (Kate Cheeseman), which gleefully channels some Stephen King-style comedy horror: businessman kills badger, encounters an animal cult = chaos ensues. Comedy has always been well served by short-form moving image, a format that allows for one well-crafted joke or set piece to express itself without dilution; to that end, Put Down (Rick Limentani, UK), the story of a black market pet exterminator, shapes up to be a delicious tar-black laugh.

In a world where the bridge between aspiring young creatives and the actual creation, production and distribution of film can seem increasingly hard to cross, events such as ASFF take on a new importance. Practical advice, industry insight and widely creative work to inspire and entertain make for a festival expert in cultural expression.

Jack Roe

See Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) from Thursday 5-Sunday 8 November 2015 at venues across York — single ticket screenings £5/4; one day festival pass £15/13.50; four day unlimited screening pass £30/27

Full programme of screenings, masterclasses and venues here

See trailer

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Tuesday –  Biennial Talk: Colin Muir and Dominic Willsdon 6:30pm @ Liverpool School Of Art And Design – FREE (Booking Required)

After the hotly debated Liverpool Biennial 2014, it’s never too soon to get a taster for what 2016 has in store. Tonight, scriptwriter Colin Muir and Biennial co-curator Dominic Willsdon will be in conversation to provide us with discussion and insight into the narrative structures, episodes and characters that are set to shape next year’s programme. We’re looking forward to it already!

Wednesday – Asylum (1972) 6pm @ FACT, Liverpool — £4

Curated by critically aware mental health organisation reVision, FACT presents their Society, Politics and Mental Health film series that aims to bring about awareness of mental health issues as portrayed on the silver screen. Opening with a discussion by LJMU lecturer and reVision member Malcolm Kinney, tonight we observe one of psychiatrist R.D Laing’s most controversial and radical experiments in the form of filmmaker Peter Robinson’s 1972 documentary Asylum. Documenting the disturbed existence of 20 schizophrenics housed in the Archway Community in London, we are forced to question the term ‘madness’ and its subsequent treatment.

Thursday – Opens: Liverpool Lift-Off Film Festival 7pm @ Fredrick’s Bar And Screen, Liverpool – FREE (Booking Required)

Now in its fifth year of showcasing the best of what short contemporary filmmaking has to offer, this three day fest allows student filmmakers and established professionals to show side by side a diverse range of European shorts, that place the fundamental necessity of narrative storytelling above the extravagance of big budget effects. Kicking off the festival with work from the likes of Chris Marker, Christina Hardinge, Jane Gannon and Federico Olivetti, Lift-Off Film Festival is continuing to prove its enduring ethos: ‘Look beyond the gloss. Put talent before technology’.

Last Day: Playtime 5.30-7pm @ Cornerhouse, Manchester – FREE

As we wave farewell to the Cornerhouse Gallery, this is your last chance to see this final exhibition on the current premises before their move to HOME (see here). Inspired by the iconic brick structure of the Cornerhouse itself and director Jacques Tati’s 1967 comic film Playtime, we are invited to celebrate the building that has housed 30 years of innovative arts. Featuring new commissions and existing works by artists Humberto Vélez, Naomi Kashiwagi, Niklas Goldbach and Shannon Plumb, notions of comedy, sound and space are explored to make playful use of one of Manchester’s most iconic buildings.

Friday –One Day Symposium On Arts & Disability 9.30am-3.30pm @ Contemporary Art Space, Chester – £20 (£10 Concession)

Running alongside the Contemporary Art Space’s latest exhibition Slippage: The Unstable Nature Of Difference, this one- off symposium aims to uncover the multitude of questions surrounding difference in all its forms. Speakers will include artists and researchers Alexa Wright, Karen Heald, Susan Liggett, Daksha Patel and Catherine Long to debate and challenge the uncertainty of physical and psychological boundaries.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Exhibition Opens: Format International Photography Festival 11-6pm @ QUAD, Derby – FREE

In its 11th year, this biennale photography fest promises the best and most diverse international work on offer. Divided into four key components — Focus, Exposure, Flash and Development — and showcasing over 30 of Derby’s most beautiful buildings, expect a programme of exhibitions and events that engages audiences in lively debate about themes such as narrative, love, religion and oppression, as portrayed in the photographic medium. A must for anyone interested in image making.

Glass Animals 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £10 ADV

Tipped as being ‘one of the most exciting British bands’ at the moment (The Line of Best Fit), the Oxford-based Glass Animals add an unlikely burst of sultry tropical pop to The Kazimier’s March line up. As the last date on their UK wide tour before heading off on the summer festival rounds, tonight promises to be a night of ‘sparse sonic structures, delicate ushering of synths, breathy vocal hooks’ (Clash Magazine).

Saturday – Exhibition Opens: External Machines 12-5pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE

The physical, self-imposed and necessary tension that exists between constriction and relief are examined to full effect with original artworks and collaborations from the likes of Adam Ferriss, David Frame, Catrin Davies and Lewis Wright in The Royal Standard’s latest exhibition. Making use of the entire gallery space, installations, sculptures, digital works, prints, photographs and a programme of events seek to question the spaces we inhabit and ask: ‘where are the contraptions, machines and self, found aesthetically?’

Sunday – Last Day: Tabitha Moses: Investment 10-5pm @ Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool – FREE

Winner of Metal’s Liverpool Art Prize 2013 and professional ‘rag bone archivist of the peripheral’, Tabitha Moses shares her personal experiences of unexplained infertility and the pursuit of fertility treatment to create this daringly intimate and beautiful exhibition. Through the use of historical and contemporary fertility symbols, we are confronted with the challenges and emotions that can accompany this often painful experience.

Last Day: Grayson Perry: Who Are You? 10-6pm @ National Portrait Gallery, London – FREE

‘It takes a real artist to get to the heart of Chris Huhne’ says the Guardian, and Grayson Perry certainly fits the bill in his latest major exhibition. Never shy of asking the big questions, Perry gets underneath the skin of some of the unknown, famous (and infamous) faces of modern society to ask: what is identity? And, how do we define ourselves? Featuring tapestries, sculptures and, of course, pots and vases that communicate what lies beneath the surface of outer appearances and demonstrates how vital our perceived identities really are.

Heather Garner

Keen to hear what’s happening in Liverpool January-March 2015? Download the PDF version of our NEW, printed Culture Diary here!

Director and patron Mike Leigh describes it as “healthily anarchic and sharp as a row of needles”, and Ideas Tap are supporting their new award for young filmmakers. But what is Greenhorn Short Film Festival? Jade French investigates…

“What do mean you live here now!? You don’t live full stop! Why are you having life after death in Crouch End?!” demands a son of his recently deceased mother. The cinema erupts with laughter, because here we all are in the ArtHouse, in Crouch End. I’m watching the North London Book of the Dead, directed by Jake Lushington, which is just one of 11 shorts that make up the official selection of this year’s Greenhorn Short Film Festival. Since 2011, this independent film and film criticism event has been somewhat covert, growing under the radar and attracting a dedicated following.

Greenhorn isn’t your regular film fest; it has evolved from a single screening to a lively three day programme supported by film giant and patron Mike Leigh. Founders Flora Bradwell and Alix Taylor have worked hard to cultivate an environment which showcases work with an ‘unusual slant’, specifically celebrating emerging filmmaking talent. It’s difficult to pin down a Greenhorn film but they all possess offbeat qualities, resulting in fantastical animations, daring black comedies and eerie dramas.

“We love shorts that are carefully crafted and beautifully made without being too self serious” explains Bradwell. If you’re still not sure what I mean, take a look at this video, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, screened at the 2012 festival. Thanks, Greenhorn, for contributing to my nightmares.

The quality of the films selected this year is outstanding, particularly when considering all of the filmmakers are new to the industry. The evening began with a quirky piece titled On Loop, directed by Christine Hooper, about insomnia. This short screams those Greenhorn qualities; the film is dark, funny and shot with a split-screen. Another stand-out film was A Comprehensive Survey of Historical Plaques in Shoreditch, East London, directed by Jack Wormell, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. Well… sort of. The film begins by introducing various historical blue plaques that adorn Shoreditch, but gradually the narrators lose the plot and the signature Greenhorn anarchy is unleashed.

So what’s changed? Back in 2011, Greenhorn’s first event was a single screening of curated shorts; now the festival has a much fuller programme including script writing workshops, industry professional panels and lunch networking sessions. Now the aforementioned Leigh — writer and director of films including Vera Drake, Secrets & Lies and the recent biopic Mr. Turner – is Greenhorn’s official patron. As a formidable force in the film industry, BAFTA adorned, Palme d’Or and Oscar nominated Leigh throws heaps of credibility into the mix. Leigh describes the festival as “stimulating, original, healthily anarchic and sharp as a row of needles, in short a breath of fresh air”. Attending every event since he joined the Greenhorn team, his presence at the festival clearly got some heads turning.

The most recent development to the festival is the Young Greenhorn Short Film Award, in association with Ideas Tap and Production Base, strengthening Greenhorn’s position in platforming emerging talent. The award this year, presented by Leigh, went to Ed Chappell for his short Sandyman. The film observes a sand artist at work, without dialogue; we simply watch him create patterns on the beach. It was strangely moving.

Talking to Taylor and Bradwell, I was interested to learn what they have in store for the future. Greenhorn is special. It operates entirely without pretension, providing a safe space where filmmakers can showcase their talents whilst building skills. But can this delicate atmosphere scale up to accommodate a bigger audience? Is this the goal for Greenhorn? “All of our new events fit within our ethos of supporting filmmakers”, explains Taylor. “Keeping the venues local and intimate has been key to helping maintain our accessibility, creating a space for filmmakers to learn and network.”

Currently Greenhorn is completely independent, running financially from donations and ticket sales. I asked both Taylor and Bradwell if they had aspirations to super-size Greenhorn, so that it becomes the go-to shorts event of the festival circuit (for instance, on a similar scale to Aesthetica Film Festival). Interestingly, they both had different views. Taylor believes in the intimacy and accessibility as the key drivers of Greenhorn’s success commenting that “being big is not what were about”. However, Bradwell suggested that “surely the bigger the platform for these film makers, the better?” I remain somewhere in the middle. I’d like to see Greenhorn pull a bigger audience for the screenings, particularly for the filmmaker’s sakes. But I confess I hope the fringe events stay small, maintaining their accessibility and intimate atmosphere.

Visiting Greenhorn has rekindled my love affair with cinema, and reminded me that there is so much more to film than the chainstore offer. I have no doubt Greenhorn’s success will continue to snowball, with audiences investing in Greenhorn’s bizarre, but always charming, view of the world. What I truly admire about this event is its insistence in being intimate in an industry that generally demands big.

Jade French

Check out the Greenhorn Film Festival website for events, featured directors and future screenings

Promoting avant-garde filmmaking, encouraging audience critique, and reminding us of the pure joy of a projector and popcorn,  ASFF injects fresh faith into our relationship with cinema, finds Joshua Potts…

It’s barely midday, and I’ve just seen a man pull a gun out of his chest. His fingers are thick with blood, his face tightened in agony, as the camera hovers uncomfortably close to the gruesome operation (perhaps closer than my half-digested tuna sandwich can take). At last he discloses a pistol blackened by his insides, cocks it, and aims at another man standing in the corner of the bedroom. A sick smile touches the first man’s lips. He presses the trigger. Nothing happens. “It’s empty,” he gasps.

I have no idea what’s going on. I arrived late for this screening and, before I can get my thoughts together: cut to black. People in front and behind me laugh and squirm uneasily, the sound like eddying pond water. A few leave, but the vast, vast majority stay. They have stalkers and devil-spawn yet to see.

This is Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s (ASFF) fourth year, and it is no longer an upstart on the UK’s film circuit. It has pedigree. It has scope. It has York as its playground, which means you could quite happily stick a lot of its venues on a postcard. ‘Sorry for your loss’ could be the accompanying sentiment to sum up the experience of not being here for anyone who has even a passing interest in grassroots auteur-ship. This four-day event is about being heard. Hotels, museums, theatres and a university are the arenas of discussion. Or just about anywhere, really.

York’s long, cobbled avenues and quaint market places are teeming with filmgoers wearing bright yellow lanyards around their necks, some of whom look lost and wide-eyed on their travels, stumbling into locals with the sincerity of avid explorers.

Ask York folk what they think of the whole thing and they’re quite bemused. The woman serving me in Greggs certainly likes sharing “oohs” and “ahhhs” over the counter. She must have noticed ASFF before, no? Quick consultation with her colleague, who’s painted himself as Pudsey Bear. I suppose local pride takes on all the forms it can.

My first breathless visit to a screening (there are six films in each slot, totalling anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes) is off the beaten track – St. Margaret’s Church, on the farthest right flank of the city’s festival grid. Viva (2014, above), a profile of octogenarian punk singer Viva Hamnell from director Amanda Bluglass, is in its closing moments. “I said I thought they were tomatoes,” says its twinkly-eyed star when asked about being busted for cannabis at the age of 46. “I was gonna feed them to my goats.” ‘Viva’ is the Latin verb ‘to live’; watching Hamnell bumble around in a floral dress, getting ready for yet another Glastonbury, is a touching salute to joie-de-vivre that couldn’t be a better introduction for ASFF’s commitment to the unexpected.

Dark comedy Dogging (2014) — from directors Matthew Reed and Sam Turk – will later be the yin to Viva’s yang, taking us into the backseat of a car where a middle aged couple are desperately, incompetently, attempting to spark up their marriage with a bit of outdoor recreation. The wife is keen, the husband not so much. A farce ensues as they bicker over the correct sequence of flashes that’ll advertise their horniness to an adjacent Land Rover. Turns out the other driver is trying to kill himself. It doesn’t stop the clueless husband from masturbating in the stranger’s window, indicting the most pathetic of transgressions in the process.

One pleasant surprise is Thirteen Thirty One, tucked on the corner of Grape Lane. It is a bar and part-time cinema with futurist, high-backed chairs and a cosy smoking area. During the festival’s Drama No.12 slot, the building’s upstairs lounge is so packed that I’m forced out into the crisp night air, not wishing to disturb an audience enjoying the beanbags dotted about the floor. Drama probably pulls the biggest crowds. Next would be comedies or thrillers, but the line between them is often blurred, as in James Sharpe’s Fibs (2013). We follow a girl through a tinted costal town, across an isolated pier, wind-whipped and heartbroken. Is she really pregnant? Sharpe’s delicate direction combines the half-known fantasies of adolescence – a standout sequence shows beach grass sprouting around our protagonist’s bed – with a gently sighing score, all the stronger for allowing its actors to communicate with silences. The film’s landscapes are its emotional axis.

Ditto two documentaries examining our growing distance from nature, Gyre: Creating Art From A Plastic Ocean (2013) and Still Life (2014). The former records a team of scientists and artists in Alaska tasked with gathering plastic waste for an unprecedented exhibition on the theme of the environment’s ongoing destruction by humanity. Some choose a raw, unvarnished approach; others seek to make waste seem otherworldly, “as if it was deposited from space”, like a clutch of futureless obelisks. The brains behind this cultural archaeology, however, can still be reduced to tears at the entrance of a mother bear and her cubs amidst the trash-marked wild. Still Life opts for artifice over realism, painting the twilight world of a forest as a dream of texture and mystic suspension. Never has a flock of ducks on a lake looked so Nietzschean. An owl finally turns its head, shadow spilling across its dilated yellow eye, and it’s difficult to suppress a shiver.

Clearly the epic and the intimate strike a balance across ASFF’s exhaustive programme. Short filmmaking is an increasingly ambitious industry, a kind of launching pad (or test site, if a director’s vision goes nuclear) for invading the zeitgeist and – whisper it – the multiplexes. With David Cameron urging UK films to focus on their commercial prospects above all else, and traditional production companies hesitant to back anything daring or off-kilter, it’s tempting to envisage the indie movie as a drowning man beating at his own reflection.

Yet Miranda Flemming, producer for crowd-funding platform Indiegogo, tells me the opposite is true. I manage to catch her for a quarter of an hour before she gives a talk to a group of hopefuls who may or may not place their careers in the hands of the public.

“I wouldn’t put anything in a box,” she says, somehow composed and eager to explain herself. “Niche films can do incredibly well, especially with our crowd-funding model. They have big, passionate audiences.” Flemming could be referring to some of her ongoing projects, like the sequel to Nazis-on-the-moon caper Iron Sky, or the recent success of her competitors, such as Kickstarter campaign leading to Veronica Mars’ theatrical release. Miranda is confident that the debate about how we watch movies extends into how we make them; that democracy in the creative sector places added importance on the short format.

“When I came out of working for the UK Film Council, I found traditional producing had become incredibly difficult. The market had collapsed. For me, what’s significant is a change in the business model. Ten years ago, you’d enter a short into about 20 competitions and bank on £10,000 from winning prizes. Now, they’re a director’s first tool in gathering an audience for their feature. It’s an established ecosystem. And the best thing is, you can’t manufacture a response – you have to just put your film out there.”

Since we’re talking about shorts with greatness in their DNA, Keeping up with the Joneses (2013) might be lead contender for the festival crown (in fact, it takes home Best Thriller at the ASFF Awards). BAFTA-nominated Michael Pearce’s elastic thriller stars Maxine Peake as a closeted victim of the suburbs, distanced from a husband who owes money to some very bad people. When two men (Geoff Bell and Utopia’s Andeel Akhtar) knock on her door demanding to see him, lives are upturned in a series of brisk, believable revelations and psychological switcheroos. Peake plays the privileged martyr with quiet dignity, while her co-leads riff off one another like Pulp Fiction’s hit-men shoved through a Primark queue. It manages to discuss class, identity and the inherent question of happiness, whilst also being incredibly funny. Typical exchange: Akhtar’s character, Jerry, is shouting at a fast food worker to put a hairnet on his moustache. The worker is dressed as a chicken. “I don’t want your fucking face hair in my food!” Jerry spits. The accused relishes the importance of his reply: “I don’t make the chicken . . . I am the chicken.” Smack. Chicken Guy is nursing a black eye.

I can’t help but agree with Miranda Flemming’s assessment that a lot of us are searching for sharper shocks in world where Hollywood is content to churn out stagnant, boring, bloated excuses for popular entertainment. She cites Breaking Bad and other top drawer television as ring-leaders in the fight against storytelling-by-committee, but hopes short films can ride changing trend in consumption. “The multiplex and the indie mentalities are moving ever further apart. Somebody at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year shouted to the audience, ‘You fools! You’ve given our film language away to TV!’” While this may be the case, I’m reminded throughout the day just how willing ASFF’s crowd is to enjoy the old-school pleasures of darkness, a projector, and some terrible seating plans.

Most of the people here are young, radiating opinion. Each screening ends with the hum of chatter and analysis. At Gently Gently (2014), one female audience member proclaims her anger at the sudden denouement that leaves our heroine at the mercy of her sinister friend and a large kitchen knife. Bad Day at the Office (2013) gets the biggest laugh: an office drone is awoken to the impact of a swinging log on his testicles. He screams in pain, and a cheerful voice, straight out of a self-help manual, perks up. “We all feel like this, don’t we? Sometimes life just kicks you in the bollocks.” In a minute or two, more office lackeys emerge from their cubicles to the drums of war. The film portrays normality as masochism; in an inspired visual gag, we get a glimpse of this fictional company’s Employee of the Month sheet, a gallery of ever-more-crippled go-getters preparing for a long hospital stay.

Not all the shorts are successful. Thriller Newborn (2013) settles for the aesthetic of a sub-standard B-movie. UK/Polish production Persistence (2012) pitches itself as a tragic study of a village occupied by German forces in WWII, but often fails to seem much more than lads mucking about in a field. And Priyanka Chhabra’s A Summer Flu (2013) is interminable, falsely presuming shots of white walls and soliloquising Indian children equals profundity.

Still, the ten or so hours I’ve spent wandering this city have injected fresh faith into my relationship with cinema. Under Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s banner, and in this format, the purity of storytelling can remain on its plinth, gaze upon the masses, and invite them up for the view. That our filmmakers need us as much as we need them – to transcend, to dream, to poeticise our existence – is a comforting thought. A triumph.

Joshua Potts

See the full Aesthetica Short Film Festival programme here

Read Joshua’s pre-festival highlights here