Thurs 20 April 2023, 1 - 6.30pm
Location: SODA Cinema
Event Type: In-person
Price: £15 full price/£7 concession
Join us for the New Cinema Days screening and seminar day on Thursday 20 April at the School of Digital Arts (SODA).
This one day collective seminar and radical screening series focuses on experimental and emerging forms of cinema. It is open to everyone but has been specifically curated for artists, filmmakers, students and researchers and anyone with an interest in new cinema.
New Cinema Days (NCD) is a creative development lab for cinema of the future, a collaboration between Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival, the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University and HOME, Manchester. In its inaugural year, NCD is intended to advance new voices, visionary forms and encounters in cinema.
Keynote
The day will kick off with a keynote by renowned programmer, researcher and writer Jemma Desai that will focus the event, followed by the seminars.
Seminars
The seminars be hosted by an industry expert and will cover the following topics:
Distribution and Exhibition of New Cinema
What are the cinemas of the future? Who will be watching, where and how?
Production, Access and Technology in New Cinema
Who has access to technologies of production? Is democratisation of production means in reverse?
Institutions, Funding and Models for New Cinema
What are the resources new cinema needs? Who is holding them? What do cinema support institutions of the future look like?
Screenings
After the seminars there’ll be a screening of short films, featuring two UK Premieres from leading radical voices in new cinema:
GLITCHBODIES by Rebecca Merlic (UK Premiere)
An experimental film and multiplatform project exploring new forms of feminism, LGBTQ+, Drag transformations and intimate sensitive representations of the protagonists, aiming to bring them to a wider audience.
Everything but the World by DIS (UK Premiere)
A docu-sci-fi plotting new narratives for new histories, from the New York–based collective known for working across mediums and platforms.
Theta by Lawrence Lek
A film continuing Lek’s ongoing Sinofuturist universe, in which he explores questions of identity, surveillance, and empathy in the age of AI.
Tickets for the seminar cost £15 full price/£7 concession.
The event will run from 1pm – 6.30pm.
Distrust Everything
On Wednesday 19 April, as part of New Cinema Days, there will also be a live AV screening of Distrust Everything by Lorem with ACRE at HOME.
Distrust Everything is a performative AV installation realised through artificial intelligence systems and 3D photogrammetries. It immerses audiences within an uncanny, synthetic dream. The interactive work explores the relationship between Fiction and Truth in the age of artificial intelligence, through an aesthetic experience that challenges our perception of inner and outer landscapes.
Tickets for this are onsale via the HOME website, and are not included with the seminar series ticket.
What is New Cinema Days?
The NCD Lab invites emerging and mid-career artists and filmmakers working at the cutting edge of new cinema to be part of our week-long creative development lab in Manchester (UK) from Monday 17 – Friday 21 April 2023.
Devised to offer support structures for cinema that emerges beyond the borders of current institutional infrastructure the Lab will be a catalyst for new digital cultures and technologies for innovative, live, virtual and immersive cinema production.
This funded programme will offer editorial support, technical facilitation and industry connection for three teams of new cinema projects in development or early production – bold cinematic works that go beyond the traditionally defined categories of ‘film’ and ‘art.’
The lab will include a one day collective seminar and radical screening series focused on experimental and emerging forms of cinema. Tickets for this public facing event are now on sale.
Selected Artists
Che Applewhaite, Grace Ndiritu and Yambe Tam will be the first ever creatives to take part in New Cinema Days, a new, week-long development lab for early and mid-career artists.
Throughout the week they will be able to access tailored support to facilitate their projects, including mentors and state of the art facilities at SODA.
