So enjoyable to share my experiences filming Hermitage Revealed at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Very exciting to livestream the event all around the world on VIKING.TV. Thanks for the terrific feedback and all the great questions!”
I discover how contemporary artist Evgeny Granilshchikov creates a timeless picture of today’s Russian social landscape, by converting his own life experience into art. As filmmakers, both Granilshchikov and I have this in common – we face an unclear future in a changing world. How do we make our films going forward? How do we keep our art alive? We don’t want our work to disappear into a post pandemic online universe. As cinemas and art galleries return, partnerships are more important than ever – so we can keep telling our stories.
As we unlock, here’s the last of our sneak peaks of unseen footage from the archive.
In my film, Dame Paula Rego talks about her meeting with L S Lowry when she was a student at the Slade. It’s so fascinating. Lowry admired her innovative work, but he himself was ostracised for being an outsider, for “his stick people” and for being a Northerner, as he walked about in his long black coat. Precisely the things we love about him now…
“AFTERPLAY” is a play about what happens after – inspired by the great Russian playwright writer Anton Chekhov, and written by Brian Friel, widely recognised as one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists. In his masterful one act play Friel (1929 – 2015) revisits two iconic characters created by Chekhov (1860 – 1904) from “Three Sisters” and “Uncle Vanya”, and hauntingly evokes what might have happened next.
“Afterplay” starring Rory Keenan, premiered in early March at The Coronet Theatre in London. Our contributor, Margy Kinmonth was lucky enough to catch it before the production was forced to close due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The theatre went dark and many involved either caught Covid19 or were furloughed, but the taste of this play remained strongly in her mind. With all that is going on, what is it really about? […]
I loved meeting Noel Gallagher to film his thoughts on the painter L. S. Lowry.
We filmed in the upstairs of Grouchos – this living legend sunk into an armchair, wearing his black leather jacket and a big red ruby ring. I knew Noel likes Lowry, he really relates to him as a Northerner, he likes Lowry’s football crowds, he likes Lowry’s “mad eyes”, and he likes Lowry’s little dogs. In this unseen clip from our archive Noel wonders what Lowry would do with a Northern town today, the factories are all dead, textile industries closed down, there are no people. Crowds are gone…a bit like today.
Luckily they’re in Lowry’s paintings forever and in my film. Have a look…
