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JOHN BERGER NOWEXHIBITION | SCREENINGS | TALKS

11-13th September | Canterbury

John Berger and Film: A Day of Screenings Mon 11 September 1pm - 6pm Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury Free Entry

Join us for a day of screenings celebrating storyteller, essayist, and critic John Berger’s relationship with film, curated by Gareth Evans (film curator Whitechapel Gallery), in association with Whitstable Biennale. The screenings are free, come and go as you please.

This is a rare opportunity to see a selection of extraordinary and varied films, including two remarkable TV documentaries Berger made with Ways of Seeing collaborator Mike Dibb, Timothy Neat’s playful adaptation of Berger’s story, Play Me Something, starring Tilda Swinton and Berger himself, Taskafa, Andrea Luca Zimmerman’s wonderful visual essay about Istanbul’s street dogs, featuring a voiceover by Berger, and Boat People, Sarah Woods’s rich meditation on migration and exile.

Programme

13:00 TAŞKAFA, Stories of the Street (2013)

14:10 Parting Shots From Animals (1980)

15:15 Play Me Something (1989)

16:35 About Time: ‘Once Upon a Time’ with John Berger (1985)

17:35 Boat People (2016)

For more on the films, visit johnbergernow.wordpress.com/films/

Celebrating John Berger: Creativity and Hospitality Tues 12 September 7pm Sidney Cooper Gallery £5

John Berger is a storyteller, essayist, novelist, screenwriter, dramatist and critic, whose body of work embodies his concern for, in Geoff Dyer’s words, “the enduring mystery of great art and the lived experience of the oppressed.”

Join a wonderful panel comprising theatre maker Chris Goode, poet David Herd, and novelist and filmmaker Tessa McWatt to discuss Berger’s remarkable creative legacy, and importance for our cultural and political moment. Chaired by Gareth Evans.

A Writing Comes Alive Event.

To book tickets, visit https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-culture/sidney-cooper-gallery/whats-on/whats-on.aspx

Libby Hall: Portraits of John Berger Thu 7 – Sat 23 September Sidney Cooper Gallery Free Entry

This exhibition of photographs by Libby Hall examines how the photographer looks at her subject: John Berger (1926-2017). Accompanying the series of extraordinary photographic portraits of Berger from 1966 are touching vernacular images of Hall and Berger throughout their many years of friendship. These compelling images capture the atmosphere of an intensely creative period in Berger’s life, more than half a century ago, and they have become a key part of the iconography surrounding this hugely significant writer. This exhibition sees these wonderful portraits displayed together for the first time.

The Seasons in Quincy Wed 13 September 5pm Curzon Cinema, Canterbury £10 Introduced by director Colin MacCabe

The Seasons in Quincy is the result of a five-year project by Tilda Swinton, Colin MacCabe and Christopher Roth to produce a portrait of the

intellectual and storyteller John Berger. It was produced by the Derek Jarman Lab, an audio-visual hub for graduate filmmaking based at Birkbeck, University of London, in collaboration with the composer Simon Fisher Turner.

The four essay films which comprise The Seasons in Quincy each take different aspects of Berger’s life in the Haute-Savoie, and combine ideas and motifs from Berger’s own work with the atmosphere of his mountain home. Each film was created as an individual work of art but they combine to make a feature film. The Seasons in Quincy shows how film can move beyond text, and beyond fine art, to offer a multifaceted and multilayered portrait. These are more than documentary films – they are exercises in thinking in film.

https://www.curzoncinemas.com/canterbury/film-info/seasons-in-quincy-four-portraits-of-john-berger

These events are taking place alongside a two-day international conference on John Berger at Canterbury Christ Church University. For more information, and to register, please visit www.canterbury.ac.uk/berger-now.