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The Cinema Series

Emily Richardson

2010 00:13:12 United KingdomColorStereo16:9HD video

Description

Each film in this series is a condensed experience of a feature film, a single 360-degree time lapsed shot in an empty cinema where the sound becomes a cacophony of past projections and the aural experience is closer to that of the projectionist than the audience.

‘The Cinema Series’ comprises a series of single shot films made in independent cinemas across the UK. As the shift from 35mm to digital projection systems took place, the status of these cinemas were becoming fragile. I was interested in creating a record of this changing relationship between film and cinema architecture and in some way capturing the essence of the traditional cinema-going experience, where the atmosphere created by the cinema itself plays a part in the audience’s experience of the film.

The films are shot in the same way, using a single 360-degree time-lapsed shot from the centre of the cinema where a feature film is projected without an audience. The soundtrack of each film, recorded in the projection booth, is likewise compressed into a shortened duration. Each film is a distilled cinematic experience; the sound becomes a cacophony of past projections.

This work is a continuation of my exploration of the complex meanings of ‘place’. I’m fascinated by what the camera, using light to animate space, focusing on the specificities of place, can reveal of histories, meanings and cultural narratives.

To date, the films have been shot in The Futurist, Scarborough, a 2000 seat cinema threatened with closure, The Woolton Picture House, the oldest working cinema in Liverpool, and The Plaza, Stockport, a restored 1930s Art Deco cinema, complete with working Wurlitzer organ. Each of these cinemas has its own distinctive character, the essence of which is captured in the films. These films are an homage to 35mm film and the cinema experience.

About Emily Richardson

Emily Richardson is a filmmaker and researcher examining the trace of human presence on particular landscapes and environments on the cusp of change.

Richardson’s films document sites of power and corporate interest at particular moments in time uncovering layers of narrative embedded in these contested landscapes, whether East London prior to the Olympics, abandoned military architecture of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment of Orford Ness, the oil industry on the Scottish coastline, the contentious expansion of Sizewell nuclear power station, or the exploitation of the Far North.

Richardson’s work sits within a lineage of filmmakers addressing ideas about our relationship to and impact on natural and constructed landscapes and environments through a reflexive observational approach to making work using a cross-disciplinary methodology that includes walking, photography, filmmaking, sound recording, historical and archive research, interviews, books and podcasts.

Richardson's films have been shown in galleries, museums and festivals internationally including Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London, Pompidou Centre, Paris, Barbican Cinema, London; Anthology Film Archives, New York and Venice, Edinburgh, BFI London, Rotterdam and New York Film Festivals.