For three years, LIDF has explored and showcased some of the best documentary films from around the world. Now, we’ve decided to delve deeper into the true meaning of ‘documentary’ and explore this method of real life story-telling through other media.
Photographic and radio documentaries will be included in this year’s programme, increasing the scope of material we exhibit and the range of practitioners we work with. Professionals from the film, photography and radio industries will join our panels, lead workshops and participatory events, and contribute new voices to our ‘conversations in documentary’. Highlights so far include Documentary Photography workshops with Magnum photographers, and a photographic treasure-hunt in and around the streets of Bloomsbury.
What’s more, the festival will now run for 16 days (23 April – 8 May) that’s twice as long as last year, so you’ll have plenty of time to get involved. Look our for further event details and very special announcements coming soon!
15:00 Sunday 6 December 2009 at Tricycle Followed by a panel discussion with Stephen Wilkinson (Assistant Director of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba at the London Metropolitan University) and Stephen M. Hart (Professor of Hispanic Studies at University College London). Tickets: £8 (£6.50 Tricycle Members)
Box office: 020 7328 1000 www.tricycle.co.uk
Whilst the international press speculates on the imminent death of Fidel Castro and the Cuban community of Miami is already celebrating his funeral, on the island the condition of his health is a state secret. But the umbilical cord that ties every Cuban to the revolution is beginning to be severed, and a new energy is emerging in the country.
Worth Abbey from the BBC TV Series 'The Monastery'. Photo: worthabbey.net
Documentary as a genre has become a staple of television programming. Every evening, audiences can expect to see anything from the drinking habits of British teenagers to radicalisation in the Muslim community. Although varied in content, the form and presentation of these films has become convergent. It is not only the constraints of the slot, being a national broadcast and thus speaking to a general audience, but also the way they are constructed. There is a standardisation occurring in the narrative arc and the use of music. How can an audience engage with a topic if the frame is predictable and rigid? And is there room for authorship by the filmmaker given the constraints set by commissioning editors?
The LIDF continues its open-ended, audience-led, events at the new Cinephilia West. Unlike other screenings, here we dispense with the panel format and discuss the evening’s theme in an informal, improvised way. We will look at documentary film as it straddles the worlds of reportage, anthropology, activism, photography and mass-entertainment.
