Award Winning Independent Cinema

It’s hard, from our perspective, to imagine a time when Impressionism wasn’t popular. It’s not only popular but ubiquitous. Images of sunlit meadows, leisurely riverbanks and ornate gardens have become artistic shorthand. Even if we think we know nothing about art, identifying a Monet would be easy enough. In their latest film, the Exhibition on Screen team take up the challenge of taking us back to the roots, and the inauspicious beginnings, of Impressionism itself. Dawn of Impressionism: Paris 1874 starts in a familiar place. We are watching an art auction take place. Impressionist paintings are selling for eye-watering sums. You ... Continue Reading

With a career spanning three decades, actor Ralph Fiennes has just received his third Oscar nomination. His role in Edward Berger’s ecclesiastical hit Conclave has impressed critics and audiences, and the nominations have been quick to follow. We may still think of Fiennes’ career high point as being the late 1990’s: Schindler’s List in 1994 and The English Patient in 1997 are still the films he is best known for, if we don’t count the recurring role of Voldemort in a certain franchise. But if we ... Continue Reading

At the age of 75, director Pedro Almodovar is still breaking new ground. In The Room Next Door, we have his first full-length feature in English. Taking its lead from Sigrid Nunez’s novel, What Are You Going Through, the film sees two friends reunite after years apart.  Ingrid (played by Julianne Moore) is a writer living in New York. During a book signing, she bumps into a friend who mentions that their mutual acquaintance, war correspondent Martha (Tilda Swinton), is dying from cervical cancer. Ingrid goes to the hospital, and after a few visits, Martha asks Ingrid if she ... Continue Reading

In approaching the reputation and legacy of modernist painter, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, film-maker Mark Cousins makes it clear that conventional story-telling will not do. A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things is a textural, emotive documentary of an artist he calls – and with good reason – a “forgotten visionary”. Born in 1912, Barns-Graham lived and worked in St. Ives at the same time as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, but her name threatened to disappear entirely in the later 20th century. While her early career saw success: her work was regularly exhibited in the 1950’s; the ... Continue Reading

Following fast on the heels of Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition, Exhibition on Screen again focuses on one of the year’s most talked-about art shows. Their film, John Singer Sargent: Fashion and Swagger, explores the Tate Britain and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Sargent and Fashion. The show has already created headlines, with some art critics accusing the John Singer Sargent portraits, and some of the clothing featured in them, as being nothing more than a superficial glance at 19th century society and ... Continue Reading

YOUR FAT FRIEND   Just say “fat”. As an opening gambit, Jeanie Finlay’s documentary isn’t shy about throwing around the F word. Your Fat Friend doesn’t tiptoe around the issue of fatness, but approaches it unapologetically. A film that documents both individual and collective experience, Your Fat Friend is a fearless exploration (and explanation) of what it’s like living in a world not designed for you. The film’s focus is author and podcast presenter, Aubrey Gordon. Finlay follows Gordon over a six-year period as she negotiates her way through a publishing ... Continue Reading