Films 08
Guest Programme
William Raban
Total Running Time: 90 min
William Raban studied painting at St Martins School of Art, London, (1967-71) and Reading University. He ran the London Filmmakers’ Co-op workshop (1972-6) and wrote and published Filmmakers Europe, an international listings and review magazine. His work has included expanded cinema, installations and work for television, much of it with a strong social/political undercurrent. He has taught at various colleges and is currently Reader in Film at the University of the Arts London. He has lived in the Docklands for over 30 years. CWFF is pleased to host a screening of William’s work followed by a Q&A discussion.
Times / Places
Q and A
Total Running Time: 90 min
William Raban studied painting at St Martins School of Art, London, (1967-71) and Reading University. He ran the London Filmmakers’ Co-op workshop (1972-6) and wrote and published Filmmakers Europe, an international listings and review magazine. His work has included expanded cinema, installations and work for television, much of it with a strong social/political undercurrent. He has taught at various colleges and is currently Reader in Film at the University of the Arts London. He has lived in the Docklands for over 30 years. CWFF is pleased to host a screening of William’s work followed by a Q&A discussion.
Times / Places
Sat 30th Aug.
1630 - 1800
Cineworld
The Films
A13
The city symphony form of Man With a Movie Camera also inspired William Raban’s A13. Raban filmed around London’s Isle of Dogs, and he weaves the
imagery and sounds of the arteries of the city in with shots of its workers and the gleaming monuments left behind by the Thatcher boom years.
Simon Field, June 1994
Island Race
Island Race is veteran British experimental filmmaker William Raban’s impressionistic portrait of aspects of English culture, constructed from the turbulent recent history of the east London Isle of Dogs area. The film is set against the background of the Conservatives’ commerce-driven attempt at urban renewal,
concentrating on the events that shape the
communities living under the Docklands’ showpiece tower at Canary Wharf. Raban keeps his distance as he documents local government elections where right wing extremists pose a threat to a multi-racial
community, the incongruous nationalism of VE day
celebrations and the funereal cavalcade of one of the East End’s best loved heroes, criminal Ronnie Kray. Eschewing causal analysis or straight social
documentary the film unearths the complex layers of community tension and solidarity while David
Cunningham provides a restrained musical
commentary. Steven Ball, 1996
Sundial
Raban’s homage to the bankrupt Canary Wharf
Tower – London’s conspicuous monument to the Thatcher years – ironically suggests it might havefound a purpose as a means of telling the time. As his camera repositions itself to track the sweep of the sun, Raban incidentally documents the old East End, which the docklands development was supposed to replace. David Curtis, March 1994
Image: A13
A13
The city symphony form of Man With a Movie Camera also inspired William Raban’s A13. Raban filmed around London’s Isle of Dogs, and he weaves the
imagery and sounds of the arteries of the city in with shots of its workers and the gleaming monuments left behind by the Thatcher boom years.
Simon Field, June 1994
Image: Island Race
Island Race
Island Race is veteran British experimental filmmaker William Raban’s impressionistic portrait of aspects of English culture, constructed from the turbulent recent history of the east London Isle of Dogs area. The film is set against the background of the Conservatives’ commerce-driven attempt at urban renewal,
concentrating on the events that shape the
communities living under the Docklands’ showpiece tower at Canary Wharf. Raban keeps his distance as he documents local government elections where right wing extremists pose a threat to a multi-racial
community, the incongruous nationalism of VE day
celebrations and the funereal cavalcade of one of the East End’s best loved heroes, criminal Ronnie Kray. Eschewing causal analysis or straight social
documentary the film unearths the complex layers of community tension and solidarity while David
Cunningham provides a restrained musical
commentary. Steven Ball, 1996
Sundial
Raban’s homage to the bankrupt Canary Wharf
Tower – London’s conspicuous monument to the Thatcher years – ironically suggests it might havefound a purpose as a means of telling the time. As his camera repositions itself to track the sweep of the sun, Raban incidentally documents the old East End, which the docklands development was supposed to replace. David Curtis, March 1994
