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A screening of two of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s collaborative works, AMY! (1980) and Crystal Gazing (1982). Introduced by Esther Leslie, Professor of Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck.
AMY! focuses on Amy Johnson and seeks to explore the image of the heroine. It is a film that, as Mulvey once described, deals with ‘the narrative spheres allotted to female protagonists, and the fate of a heroine who adopts an active relation to narrative space and resists the intimidating look of the camera in its role as sculptor of passive femininity.’
Crystal Gazing is an experimental feature film. Set during Margaret Thatcher’s first administration, it is concerned with the lives of four ‘cultural workers’ in London. One of the many remarkable aspects of this film is its dialogue with other forms of independent cultural production, most notably comedy, theatre, and music. It features a special soundtrack, much of which of composed especially for the film, by British musician Lora Logic.
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, AMY!, 1980, 30 minutes.
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, Crystal Gazing, 1982, 92 minutes.
Esther Leslie is Professor of Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck.
Her books include: Walter Benjamin, Overpowering Conformism (Pluto Press, 2000); Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant Garde (Verso, 2002); Synthetic Worlds: Nature, Art and the Chemical Industry (Reaktion, 2005); Walter Benjamin (Reaktion, 2007); Derelicts: Thought Worms from the Wreckage (Unkant, 2014); and Walter Benjamin, On Photography (Reaktion, 2015). http://www.militantesthetix.co.uk/
Film Season
Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen: Beyond the Scorched Earth of Counter-Cinema
The Whitechapel Gallery presents a season dedicated to groundbreaking film theorists Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen. See the full season of events.
