Society of Cinema: Workshop and lecture with filmmaker Seemab Gul
Wednesday August 29, 2021
From 17:00 – 21:00
Museum of Impossible Forms is delighted to open the autumn season for Society of Cinema with a workshop and lecture with filmmaker Seemab Gul.
Seemab Gul is a British-Pakistani artist and filmmaker based in London. Her films interweave documentary, fictional, and performative elements to explore social-political stories. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue, examining conditions of precarity in society and focusing on the outsider experience. Her portfolio includes documentaries, drama, hybrid films and art installations. She works as a screenwriter, director and producer.
Seemab's latest short film “Mulaqat” (aka Sandstorm) premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. Her documentary “Zahida” won the Audience Award at Tasveer South Asian Film Festival. It was broadcast on Al Jazeera and it's trailer has over 13 million views. Seemab's films have screened in HotDocs, SXSW, Dok Leipzig, Sheffield Doc Fest, Geneva Contemporary Art Centre and many international festivals and galleries. Her work has been supported by Channel 4, CBA WorldView, Al Jazeera and Arts Council England. Seemab was a fellow of the Locarno Open Doors Producers Lab and a Berlinale Talent. She has a BA in Fine Art and an MA in Filmmaking from the London Film School.
Schedule:
17:00 – 18:30 Workshop: Introduction to Short Filmmaking
The workshop is a focused session on documentary filmmaking intended for participants new to the field. We invite film students, young professionals, and people who are entering filmmaking with knowledge of another field such as theater, writing, research, and activism.
The workshop has a capacity of 8 participants and requires registration. To register send an email to post@kennofilmi.com
18:30 – 19:00 Break
19:00 – 20:30 Lecture
Seemab Gul will present her work and discuss topics such as political activism in filmmaking and the mixing of documentary and fiction. During the session we will screen two of her short films: “One Day in Whitechapel” and “Towards a Militant Conceptualism”. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session. The lecture is open to the public and does not require registration.
“One Day in Whitechapel”
Drama, colour, super 16mm, 13 min. 2015
Producer | Writer | Director
Arts Council England commission
Two teenagers start their day on opposite sides of the barricades during a racist demonstration in Whitechapel, East London. When Sam watches her friends beat a young skinhead, instead of joining the fight, she saves the boy. An unlikely friendship sparks when the two teenagers are stuck in a shed hiding from threats outside.
“Towards a Militant Conceptualism”
Film essay, Super 16mm & DV, black & white, 13 min. 2013
Director | Writer | Producer
Arts Council England commission
The film explores the director’s personal experiences of protest, dealing with agents of the State and questioning the origins of law. It’s an open argument on protest and its relationship to art, with the proposition of art as a medium of the former.
Society of Cinema is a collaboration between Museum of Impossible Forms and Kenno Filmi. The series is curated by Danai Anagnostou.