bioskop visit the Star and Shadow in newcastle

The Cube’s mysteriousbioskop headed to the Star and Shadow in Newcastle on Thursday 21st January to screen a programme we put together of artist’s film, rare documentary, and short fiction called WE ARE FAMILY.

In some ways the Cube and the Star and Shadow are sister cinemas, or at least first cousin cinemas – they’re very similar in the way they work, and share a lot of ideological and organisational DNA.

None of the bioskop had been to the Star and Shadow before, so we decided to screen each of the films in a different room – including the bar, auditorium, dark room, office, and toilets – so that we (and the audience) could get a chance to explore the building.

If you’ve ever been part of a collective (or any work organisation for the matter) you’ll know the experience is a mixture of friendship, arguments, politics, flirting, work and shirking, endless meetings, egos, emails, inspiration and disillusion (and vice versa), drinking, cleaning, boredom and fun.

Its basically like being part of a large dysfunctional family – hence the name of our programme, WE ARE FAMILY. The films we chose, as well as being films we love, were selected to reflect a bit of that of that experience… Here they are –

Girls Own Story – Jane Campion,1984
(shown in the ladies toilets)

Hells Angels take a mini-break – BBC documentary, 1973
(shown in the bar)

You can watch this short documentary on Adam Curtis’s excellent blog here. Adam writes about the film – They’re obviously not very nice people (especially as they tend to go on about Nazis). And the film has a disapproving commentary that talks about their “psychotic tendencies” and their “empty daily existence”. But as you watch the film you begin to realise that the director (or possibly the editor) was making a completely different film.
It uses the Hells Angels as a comic and exaggerated parody of the emptiness of the daily life for everyone in Britain.

Stealing Beauty – Guy Ben-Ner,2007
(shown in the office)

thanks to Al Cameron for introducing us to this film…

Downside Up – Tony Hill, 1984
(shown in the cinema)

Call of the Wild – Spartacus Chetwynd, 2007
(shown in the projection room)


you can watch Call of the Wild on ubu here.

Birth of the Goalkeeper of the 2001 FA Cup Final – Mike Leigh, 1975
(shown in the dark room)

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