28 Sep 2024
19:00 — 21:30
Off Site
Join us at Newlyn Filmhouse for a special screening of STEPHEN and a Q&A with artist and filmmaker Melanie Manchot.
As well as STEPHEN, the evening will include a showing of Stade, a short film made by Allister Gall and Dan Paolantonio, working collaboratively as Imperfect Cinema.
SCHEDULE
- Welcome
- Allister introduces Stade
- Melanie introduces STEPHEN
- Screenings
> Stade (10 minutes)
> STEPHEN (78 minutes) - Q&A
Booking essential via Newlyn Filmhouse website
Scripted and shot cinematically as a fiction film, STEPHEN is shaped by the raw and moving energy of one young man’s quest to transform his early life of violence and addiction and of his desire to both act and live differently. The film is centred around Stephen Giddings (Ste), who, growing up on the Quarry Green Estate in Kirkby, Liverpool, was confronted with addiction from an early age – both in the lives of those around him, and eventually in his own. At just 26 years old he was giving up on life. What follows is an intimate journey as Stephen auditions for and takes on a role in a movie, questioning whether he can fulfil his ambitions and realise one of his big dreams: to become an actor.
Combining original archive material, interviews, and narrative drama, STEPHEN brings together a unique cast of four acclaimed British actors alongside a supporting cast drawn from a group of 20 participants in active addiction recovery.
MELANIE MANCHOT
London-based artist and filmmaker Melanie Manchot employs photography, film, video and sound to form a sustained enquiry into how we form ideas about our individual and collective identities. Performance-to-camera, reconstruction and participation as well as location-based research are recurring methodologies. She makes films for cinematic and art world distribution and her moving image works have been shown in galleries and museums across the world.STEPHEN is Manchot’s first feature film, commissioned by Liverpool Biennial. Her work is held in many public collections and was recently presented in a major survey show at museum MAC/VAL, Paris. In 2023, STEPHEN premiered at film festivals internationally as well as being a headline presentation at Liverpool Biennial from June to September 2023.
STADE
Commissioned by The Box and the BFI, Stade was commissioned specifically to be screened at the 2022 Because The Night Belongs to Us exhibition at the Box in Plymouth. A year in the making, this ten-minute film explores the surprising visual and sound aesthetics of an amateur football facility after dark, choosing to focus on the formal audio-visual qualities of the location. With a soundtrack composed by sound-artist Patrick James Pearson (LYR), this film continues Imperfect Cinema’s exploration of the possibilities of community-focused site-specific experimental documentary.
ALLISTER GALL
Allister Gall is Programme Leader, BA Filmmaking and lecturer in Filmmaking, and co-founder of Imperfect Cinema.
“We create films that explore place, people, and memory, and facilitate local participatory projects. We recently completed Stade as a commission from BFI and The Box. Over the previous two years, we have been researching Plymouth’s Union Street and in particular, its largely forgotten cinema history for the Home of Movies Project.”
Exhibition
STEPHEN
04 May - 02 Nov 2024
The Exchange
