Spatial Cinema

AFW / Arena, 2 Kerr St, Fitzroy

Artist filmmaker Stephen Connolly’s work explores place, politics and history, and has been

widely shown internationally since 2002. Currently he is interested in the spatial cinema as a

post-landscape framing of our surroundings; looking at experience and social issues of

space, finance and the city. This screening is a survey of work but also of approaches to

depicting space and our relationship with it.

A day in the British Museum Reading Room, animated in 2 minutes 40 seconds. The doomed

space is a panopticon in plan; in the centre of the frame is the raised desk of the library

superintendent, watching the library users.

A lyrical homage to a friend and formative influence. Tom is eloquent and effusive, yet can

he find resolutions to the issues that haunt him? The film gives his voice to his story.

Jury Special Mention, Tiger Awards for Short Film, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2006

Griot Award for Editing and Editorial, Ann Arbor Film Festival 2006

The story of the ruined National School of Ballet on the edge of Havana frames a cinematic

exploration of time and space in this city in Cuba. Más Se Perdió is an evocative study of an

atmosphere of anticipation; capturing a place on the threshold of change.

Funded by FLAMIN / Arts Council England 2009

Ghostly Award for Sound Design, Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA 2009

An essay film cinematically exploring a city as a machine; a space for the movement and

circulation of people, cars and finance. Invisible walls segment the people of this city, for

this is Detroit, one of the most racially segregated places in the United States. Voiceover

testimony from residents describe how the city-as-machine shapes their experience. This is

a place that has mutated from mass producing cars to producing spaces for mobility.

BAFTSS Practice as Research in Moving Image Award, 2018