Pop up film screening inside Museum of Cinema

On Sunday 1 June, the museum will be turned into a cinema featuring films by local and international independent film makers. The hit and run cinematic event also involves a series of talks about 'The Changing Face of Cinema'.

As the home to one of the largest collections of material relating to the moving image in Britain, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum provides a perfect setting for screening short films. The museum chronicles the development of optical entertainment from shadow puppets and 17th century manuscripts to the most recent Hollywood blockbusters. The diversity of the museum’s collection provides an insight into the changing dynamics of the moving image, which will be discussed in the series of talks.

Films such as the achingly beautiful ‘Tiger is Gun’ directed by Royal Television Society Award Winner Richard Gosling will be screened alongside the chilling mystery of ‘Lot 13’ by Meat Bingo Films, and the sharply funny ‘Date at Tate’ by Molly Brown. 

Short films from students at the University of Exeter will also feature in the pop up cinema. Clifford Roddy, a mature first year Film Studies student, who worked as a professional photographer before university is showcasing his film ‘Waking Dreams’.

There are a few last minute spaces available for filmmakers to have their films screened and to participate in the talks about ‘The Changing Face of Cinema’.  

PUNY GODS! curator David Salas is a filmmaker in residence at the Exeter Phoenix and is keen to encourage more film makers to get involved in these one off events. Salas has been involved in the takeover of city centre shops, showcasing an eclectic mix of films and open air screenings as part of Open Studios Exeter, PUMA and Love Film’s Film4Peace. Salas said: “The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is the perfect venue to showcase new talent, engage audiences and put the innovation of today’s filmmakers into context.”

Previous filmmaker’s who have had their work shown at PUNY GODS! events have included MOMA artist Ben Borley’s ‘Erasure’, BBC New Filmmaker Rob Brown’s ‘Silent Things’ and Realm Pictures’ ‘The Underwater Realm’.

Dr Phil Wickham, curator of the Cinema Museum said: “It will be the first time that films made by local filmmakers will be played inside The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. The museum is an important part of the arts community in Devon and it’s hard to think of a more appropriate place to show films than a museum dedicated to the history of the moving image.”

He added:“Inevitably many of the films will be informed by the ideas behind our amazing collection of artefacts, which show the relationship between film and its audience. It’s exciting to see new talent and film history come together in this way”.

PUNY GODS! Verses The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is on 1 June from 12-midday to 5pm, £5.00 tickets are available from the Exeter Phoenix, online and on the door. The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is on the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus, in the Old Library, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter EX4 4SB.