About Me

I am one of the film programmers at the Star & Shadow Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Star & Shadow Cinema is a place that is entirely run by volunteers in a non-hierarchical structure: we do everything ourselves, and that goes from film projecting (on 35mm, 16mm, digibeta, blu-ray and DVD) to accountancy, applying for funding, designing brochures, compiling the text for the brochures, programming films, designing posters, making the website, doing press work, inviting filmmakers, etc. We have one screen of about 70 seats.

I have been programming films there for the past 5 years. 

Seasons I curated

La Belle et La Bete (1946, Cocteau)

I programme films through seasons that I have curated, through filmmakers that I invite, or in collaboration with larger institutions.

Some of the seasons that I have curated include:  French Myths and Fairytales (June 2010), New Latin American Cinema (Nov 2010), AgnesVarda Season (Nov 2009), Eric Rohmer Season (June 2009), Madness on Film (June 2009).

In January 2011, I curated and organised a season of films for the Side Cinema on French Cinema in the 1990s, and I chose the following films: Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1994), Every Little Thing (Nicolas Philibert, 1997), Betty (Claude Chabrol, 1992), The Town is Quiet (Robert Guediguian, 2000).

Some of these seasons were organised with the support of the Institut Francais.

Seasons I organised

Daughters of Darkness (1971, Harry Kumel)

I have programmed a few seasons that were curated by lecturers from Northumbria University and for which I did the organising: Psych-Out, The Surreal Side of Euro-Cult (March 2013), San Francisco on Film (Oct 2012), Alternative Shakespeare Film Festival (June 2012), Alien Nation: A Season of Cult British TV (July 2011).

I recently organised a season of Artist Film curated by Mark Chapman, filmmaker and photographer: The Invisible and The Real (March 2013).

Press

Two of the seasons I recently organised featured in the Guardian Guide:

February 2013: for the season The Invisible and The Real:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/feb/09/this-weeks-new-film-events

March 2013: for the season Psych-Out, The Surreal Side of Euro-Cult:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/02/this-weeks-new-film-events

Collaboration with Festivals

I regularly collaborate with ZipanguFest and programme films from their festival (in April 2011 and in Jan-Feb 2012), and I sometimes help with the coordination of screenings from local festival, such as the AV festival in 2012.

In September 2012, I was one of the Ambassadors of the UnderWire Film Festival, and I organised a networking night for local female directors (link to the event here). I also collaborated with Scala Beyond in September 2012 (http://scalabeyond.com/).

Currently (April 2013) I am organising the screening of films from the Oberhausen Film Festival at the Star & Shadow Cinema: more info here.

Podcasts

I sometimes make podcasts, and my latest podcast was aired on the radio show Cinema Nation, on Resonance FM, and you can listen to it here: http://www.cinemanation.co.uk/