Professor Presents “Irish London” Film Screenings

Prof Lance Pettitt, Professor of Screen Media at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham is to introduce a selection of rare films on Tuesday 7th May at 2.30 as part of the ‘London’s Screen Archive’ screening series at Birbeck College, London. The free public screening will feature films by director Thaddeus O’Sullivan: Flanogan (1974), A Pint of Plain (1975), Jack B Yeats (1981) and Streets of Gold (1993). This is a selection of O’Sullivan’s experimental films that emerged from his studies at the Royal College of Art and led to his becoming one of Ireland’s leading cinematographers. Organiser of the series Prof Ian Christie, Birkbeck College, describes the series: “London is, among many other things, a place of passage. Lives may begin or end within its boundaries, which take place far away. And Londoners spending most of their lives far from the city may still feel connected, like Graham Greene’s exiled vacuum-cleaner salesman in Havana or Lambeth-born Charlie Chaplain, whose return visit is an important episode in Richard Attenborough’s fine biopic. Experiencing mixed feelings about the metropolis is a theme running through this selection of films set only partly in London; for some it represents home or a place of safety; for others, escape is the priority.” Dublin born film director O’Sullivan, known for December Bride, Nothing Person, Ordinary Decent Criminal, The Heart of Me and Into the Storm, is the subject of a new book The Woman Who Married the Clark Gable [1985] (Sao Palo: Humanitas Press, 2013), which has been co-edited by Prof Pettitt and Prof Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos. The Clark Gable book examines O’Sullivan’s first film as a director of a screen drama, based on an adaptation of a Sean O'Faolain short story, staring Bob Hoskins and Brenda Fricker. As a result of the research, Prof Pettitt has curated a 2-disk DVD published by the Irish Film Institute in Dublin. It features a compilation of selected early films in a digitally re-mastered form, funded in part by the University College. The book will be published this summer, with the DVD due for release in the autumn. The film screening will begin at 2.30pm, followed by a question and answer session with the director after. Entry is free. Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPD Nearest tubes: Russell Square or Goodge Street. For more information please visit the website.