"Artist filmmaker Stephen Connolly investigates cinema and representation through the cognitive mapping of place, politics and history. His work at the intersection of the personal and the social weaves journeys through spaces at the same time local and global. Accompanied with an open approach to speech and narration, his Spatial Cinema offers compelling visions of a contemporary and plural world." - LUX
These films foreground the experiences of our surroundings and cinematic space, while engaging in singular aesthetic journeys of their own. Narratives of space are traced in this work, exploring material environments constructed as sites, by movement and habit, and the workings of finance and capital.
“Connolly is a filmmaker first, but also an artist and craftsman…from a ballet school in Cuba to tragic working class heroes – means his inquisitive, self-reflexive films take experimental cinema in new directions…” Vlastimir Sudar, Sight & Sound
In the re-making of the work as a DVD/Blu-ray, the extras features of this format have been explored as a forum for dialogue and discussion. Given a free of hand and open brief, artists (Andrea Zimmerman; Miranda Pennell), academics (William Brown; Lars Bjorn) and critics (Jonathan Watts – booklet essay author) have contributed commentaries to expand on their encounter with the work.
This DVD/Blu-ray contains:
The Reading Room | 3′, 2002
Film for Tom | 12′, 2005
Postcard from Istanbul | 6′, 2003
Mas Se Perdio | 14′, 2009
Zabriskie Point (redacted) | 27′, 2013
Machine Space | 24′, 2016
Released & funded by UCA and LUX; Distributed by LUX - please contact LUX directly for institutional orders
Extras
Essay booklet & on-disc PDF; film commentaries by Lars Bjorn, William Brown, Miranda Pennell, Andrea Luka Zimmerman; interview with architect Vittorio Garatti; research material and extra footage.
