DVD edition of John Akomfrah's documentary announced for January.
The Stuart Hall Project
Moderator: MichaelB
- antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
The Stuart Hall Project
Last edited by antnield on Fri Nov 01, 2013 11:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
- RossyG
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm
Re: The Stuart Hall Project
A particularly unfortunate title, needless to say, but this looks fascinating.
- antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: The Stuart Hall Project
Press release:
TrailerThe Stuart Hall Project
Revolution, politics, culture and the New Left experience
A film by John Akomfrah
One of the most charismatic and inspiring voices of the post-war Left, Stuart Hall has profoundly influenced the academic landscape with his work in the field of cultural theory. Chronicling his life and career, The Stuart Hall Project is an intimate and engaging portrait from director John Akomfrah (The Nine Muses, Handsworth Songs). Highly acclaimed at this year’s Sundance and Sheffield Documentary film festivals, and heaped with critical praise when it opened in UK cinemas in September, it will be released on DVD by the BFI on 20 January 2014.
John Akomfrah’s portrayal of the life and times of this public intellectual follows him from his working-class beginnings in Jamaica through to his arrival as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford in 1951, where he co-founded the New Left Review, and his subsequent career as the UK’s leading cultural theorist and architect of cultural studies at Birmingham University and later the Open University.
Using extensive archival imagery – home movies, family photographs and excerpts from Hall’s many film, television and radio appearances – Akomfrah's filmmaking approach matches the agility of Hall's intellect. The film explores its themes of memory, race and identity through the juxtaposition of events from Hall’s life and a discourse on the wider social and political events of the second half of the twentieth century.
Akomfrah’s soundtrack features a wide range of music by Miles Davis, Hall’s favourite musician, brilliantly chosen to reflect and comment on the film’s shifts in mood and tone as it moves through decades of change.
Special features
- The Stuart Hall Project Q&A (2013): John Akomfrah and Baroness Young in conversation at BFI Southbank
- John Akomfrah and Stuart Hall Q&A with Parminder Vir (2013): audio recording from the ICA screening of The Stuart Hall Project
- Black and White in Colour Rushes (1992): interview with John Akomfrah recorded for Isaac Julien’s Television, Memory, Race, from the BBC’s ‘Black and White in Colour’ season
- Original trailer
- Optional 5.1 surround soundtrack
- Illustrated booklet including a newly commissioned essay by Mark Fisher
Product details
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIVD998 / Cert 12
UK / 2013 / colour and black & white / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 95 mins / DVD9 / Original aspect ratio 1.78:1 (16x9 anamorphic) / Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps)
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: The Stuart Hall Project
Have you got your Stuart Hall(s) confused?RossyG wrote:A particularly unfortunate title, needless to say, but this looks fascinating.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Re: The Stuart Hall Project
The sociologist Stuart Hall was already famous long before anyone had ever heard of the jailed gameshow host.TMDaines wrote:Have you got your Stuart Hall(s) confused?RossyG wrote:A particularly unfortunate title, needless to say, but this looks fascinating.
In fact, far from being an "unfortunate title" ("particularly" or otherwise), I'd say that this is an excellent opportunity to highlight the fact that there's a considerably more distinguished Stuart Hall out there - at least as far as people who didn't already know this are concerned. Effectively, this release is reclaiming the name.
- RossyG
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm
Re: The Stuart Hall Project
No.TMDaines wrote:Have you got your Stuart Hall(s) confused?RossyG wrote:A particularly unfortunate title, needless to say, but this looks fascinating.
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: The Stuart Hall Project
Whoops, I now realise that by "title", you are referring to the actual name of the work, as opposed to the piece of work itself. Oh the vagaries of the English language!RossyG wrote:No.TMDaines wrote:Have you got your Stuart Hall(s) confused?RossyG wrote:A particularly unfortunate title, needless to say, but this looks fascinating.
- ellipsis7
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