Gill Roth and Andrew Clarke - Make Believe (and 30 years of making things happen in London)

Opening this week at Lewisham Arthouse, Gill Roth and Andrew Clarke present their joint exhibition 'Make Believe'  Gill and Andrew 'make work that blurs the edge between abstraction and representation, where the observable world meets the environment of the imagination. While drawing forms the core of Gill’s practice, Andrew’s figures emerge through a process of collaging and assemblage. Both work on paper in a way that embraces intuition, accident and play with recurring motifs hinting at inner bodily functions or states of mind' (see website for further details).

I had a chat with Gill and Andrew last week. Apart from the intrinsic interest of the exhibition itself, I want to highlight their role as long term 'cultural activists' in London (for want of a better word), helping to make interesting things happen for more than 30 years.

Gill and Andrew met at Maidstone College of Art in the 1980s, where their contemporaries included Tracey Emin, moving up to South London - where Gill had grown up in West Dulwich - shortly afterwards. Andrew did a printmaking course at Morley College, where Gill worked for a spell too.

Gill and Andrew at Maidstone College of Art

Andrew (left) at Maidstone graduation - Melvin Bragg warns art students of the 'hostile world' of market forces

This was a time when cultural work was enabled by a (fast disappearing) economy of benefits, free/low cost adult education, cheap housing (they lived for a while in the Gypsy Hill Housing Co-op) and cash in hand jobs. Like many other art students before and since, Andrew subsidised his own work by life modelling including for the artist Maggi Hambling.

Andrew got involved with legendary Brixton club the Mambo Inn, which ran at the Loughborough Hotel from the late 1980s to 1996. The club was best known for its African and Latin American music but also had a jazz thread running through it which Andrew helped contribute as DJ ‘Danny Polo’. He also designed some of the banners which defined the club’s strong visual image (I had some great nights out there myself in my Brixton clubbing days). Andrew was also able to combine his musical and artistic interests in this period by doing illustrations for Paul Bradshaw’s influential Straight No Chaser magazine. His involvement in music has continued ever since, including singing in 1990s bands Matilda and Charm.

Andrew at Mambo Inn at Loughborough Hotel

Answering an advert in Time Out which asked ‘Why Work’in 1985 led to Gill and Andrew joining ‘Build Hollywood and Film It’, a film/theatre collective operating out of an empty school in Chelsea. Build Hollywood worked for a couple of years making a movie that was never released, but they did make short films including a promotional video for Brixton Cycle Co-op. They also put on events including a comedy night at the Hackney Empire featuring Jonathan Ross and his Last Resort sidekick Dr Scrote. Later the pair were involved with putting on the Umbrella Club at the Diorama Arts Centre near Euston (where Andrew DJ'd along with Charlie Gillett and others), and organising a fundraiser variety night featuring Vic Reeves and Jack Dee performing early in their careers.

Umbrella Club banners and 1991 flyer - 'funk/soul/house/African/jazz/reggae/Latin/raggamuffin/rare groove'

Andrew's own acting involvement led him to perform at that most prestigious of South London venues - the old Den, home of Millwall before its demolition in 1993.  As part of the Bargain Bucket theatre company, Andrew provided pre-match children's theatre. They also put on a children's circus on Ladywell Fields. Alongside his creative work, Andrew trained to teach English as a Foreign Language and has been working with refugees in this field for many years.

Having worked for spells at Morley College, Camberwell Arts College and as an Edinburgh Festival volunteer, Gill meanwhile pursued a career in freelance journalism and arts PR, working initially with Julia Hobsbawm (thanks to an introduction while showing Quentin Tarantino around town on his first visit to London - it's a long story). Over the years she worked for many clients in the arts and museum world including Artangel, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum

In 2005 they launched Cinetopia, a film night with a quiz, initially at the Crown and Greyhound pub in Dulwich. Later they moved it to the Hill Station Cafe on Kitto Road. This led on to them starting the popular New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival, bringing their expertise in film, promotion and events.

Gill and Andrew had continued to practice their drawing and printing at various times through the 1990s, including exhibiting in an open show at the famous Cool Tan squat on Effra Road in Brixton (I went to some great parties there too but that's another story). Their relocaton to Telegraph Hill in the early 2000s with its thriving Open Studios scene inspired them to make more work and show it publicly.

Andrew Clarke mural at the Hill Station SE14  - Procession of the Manimals (2014)

Gill Roth paints scenery for Telegraph Hill Pantomime 'Babes in the Wood' (2012)

Andrew and Gill appreciate Lewisham Arthouse as one of the vanishing places offering cheap studio and exhibition space with a minimum of bureaucracy. While they don't have studios there, Gill has attended life drawing classes there for some time as well as more recently attending events organised by the London Drawing Group (who among other things run Drink and Draw sessions at Buster Mantis in Deptford). Gill says I have 'drawn people since I was a kid' but highlights the work of artists such as the London Drawing Group and Nicola Tyson who are doing interesting contemporary work in this medium and showing that 'you can draw in 2018 and still make sense)

Gill Roth, 'Anatomical Venus'

Make Believe runs from Saturday 1st September to Sunday 9th September 2018 (Opening Times: Weds – Sun, 12 – 6pm), with the Private view on  Friday 31st August. 6 – 9pm. Lewisham Arthouse is on Lewisham Way, SE14 6PD. Full details here: http://www.lewishamarthouse.org.uk/project-space/make-believe/

instagram: @rothgill @clarkesville.art

New Cross & Deptford Free Film Festival 2017

Next weekend sees the start of The New Cross & Deptford Free Film Festival, featuring 31 free film screenings in the ten-day period starting 21st April. According to the organisers:

'The festival starts with a bang at the newly refurbished White Hart pub in New Cross, with the screening of comedy-drama Chef, followed by DJs until late. From then on, you have the choice of up to three films per day.

Amongst the many highlights is the outdoor bicycle-powered screening in Telegraph Hill Upper Park, which has become an annual staple in the festival. This year the festival chooses to celebrate the late great Gene Wilder, and promises a chocolatey treat of wonder, with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory showing on the first Saturday in full technicolour. Your pedalling helps to power the film so your attendance is required!

Our second open air bike-powered event aptly takes place on the commuters’ cycle route in Folkestone Gardens. With all those bikes powering the film it had to be the right film choice: Breaking Away is about bike racing, as well as growing up.

Another highlight is Reservoir Dogs, which hits its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. Can you believe Tarantino first hit the big screen 25 years ago? You are invited to dress accordingly for this film screening at one of the new units in Deptford Market Yard'.

Some of the people involved in the Festival have already got into the spirit of things, making a short Deptord Dogs promotional trailer.

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2016

So many great films to see for free in fine locations this week in the New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival. To choose just a few:

 

- tonight (Tuesday) there's a chance to see Roman Polanski's Macbeth in the evocative setting of Deptford's ancient St Nicholas Church;

 

- tomorrow night there's a 'Spiceworld the Movie' Spice Girls singalong showing at the Golden Anchor and 'Pride' (the film based on Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) at New Cross Learning.

 

- On Saturday 30th April there's an open air cycle powered showing of  Labyrinth in Telegraph Hill Park, featuring David Bowie as goblin king.

 

- On the last day of the festival Buster Mantis, the new Jamaican themed bar in Deptford, will host an afternoon of films (in association with the Jamaica International Reggae Film Festival)  and music (courtesy of Unit 137 Sound System). The triple bill will include Sound Business (1980s London sound system film), We the Ragamuffin (1990s film shot in Peckham) and Countryman, with Q&A from one of the leading experts on Jamaican and Reggae film culture, Julian Henriques.

 

See full programme here

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2015

Some great events coming up in this year's New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival, here's a quick summary from the organisers, for full details check out their website.

New Cross + Deptford Free Film Festival 2015.

Fri 24 April - Sun 3 May

'The fourth annual New Cross + Deptford Free Film Festival is shaping up to be a cinematic extravaganza. This year there really is something for everyone - from Youtube Cats to radical politics (there’s an election on!).

The festival launches with Friday Night Fever, a screening of Saturday Night Fever followed by a 70s disco. Strut your stuff at Number3, the new warehouse space on Creekside. 

  

The festival closes with a very special guest. Legendary DJ, musician and filmmaker Don Letts will be talking about his documentary film The Clash: Westway To The World followed by a DJ set at the Job Centre in Deptford.

Other highlights include:

Tuesday 28 April: Westmonster / Spirit Level - Two politically charged films with Q & A and discussion at New Cross Learning

Wednesday 29 April: Carrie – the original teen horror at Deptford Lounge

Thursday 30 May: Global Shorts - 16 films from 16 countries at Deptford Lounge

Friday 1 May: Old Kent Road -Everybody’s heard of the Champs-Élysées. The Old Kent Road’s the same. It must be one of the best known names in Europe.” - at The Hill Station Cafe

Saturday 2 May: Wizard of Oz - Follow the yellow brick road to this bike powered, open air event in Telegraph Hill upper Park

Throughout the festival Sanford Housing Co-op are presenting Ways Out: Unfolding the topography of the possible. Six films investigating alternatives to generic Capitalism. Join filmmakers, activists and guest-panellists for discussions'

Cat Video Film Festival

A Cat Video Film Fesitval on the Big Red Pizzeria, Deptford, on 25 April 2005. Book free tickets here. That is all. 

Yes I know, what has happened to Transpontine? More cats and old photos than radical critique and breaking news! Other activities and projects currently exhausting energy but stay tuned... for more cats and old photos.

Day of the Dead Silent Disco/New Cross & Deptford Free Film Festival 2015

Planning is already starting for next year's New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival. The last couple of years have seen thousands of people watching interesting films for free in all sorts of unusual locations (parks, churches, tattoo parlours...). If you want to get involved at any level - showing films, publicity, suggesting venues - come along to the first planning meeting on Monday 10th November, 8 pm  at the Job Centre pub on Deptford High Street (details here).

To raise funds for the film festival, the Hill Station Cafe (Kitto Road SE14) is hosting a Day of the Dead Silent Disco:

'Saturday 1 November 2014 is Mexican Day of the Dead and to celebrate The Hill Station Café will again be teaming up with the Silent Disco crew to create a Fabulously Fluorescent, Luminously Lovely, Ultra Violet, Psychedelic Disco. A top line-up of local DJ’s will keep your feet firmly on the dance floor with a selection of the best banging party tunes, decadent disco hits and old-skool hedonism.

It’s a fancy dress thing - the more skulls the merrier (but of course you don't have to). The best dressed Senor and Senorita will be crowned "King and Queen of the Dead". Everybody gets a free cocktail on arrival, and there'll be lots of extra scary stuff too'.

Tickets from: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/e/869689

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2014

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2014 kicked off last night with 'Bend it Like Beckham' at the Hill Station Cafe and Superman of Malegaon at the Big Red Pizzeria. Loads more free events at interesting venues over the next week - see full programme here.

I will just mention a couple of events with particular local historical resonance.

South London Hardcore is showing Once a Jolly Swagman at no.178 cafe on May 1st, a great 1948 speedway film starring Dirk Bogarde that was filmed at the now vanished New Cross Stadium.

On 29 April, The Hustler is showing at Shades Snooker Club on Deptford High Street -a building that once housed one of the area's first cinemas, the Deptford Electric Palace (1910-54)

Light Houses

'About Face' on Pepys Road, photo by Andew Clarke

The Light Houses Winter Wonderland event in New Cross/Telegraph Hill on 8 December was fun, with 23 films being screened in street windows, while people wandered around checking them out (some went further and supplied mulled wine and seats to sit and watch).

The next three were all on Gellatly Road, there were other clusters on Waller, Pepys and Erlanger Roads, among others. Plans are already being made for future events, so if you have a digital projector or can borrow one start thinking about it and watch this space for details. 

Light Houses Winter Wonderland

Free film on the streets of Telegraph Hill/New Cross tonight (Sunday 8 December, 5-8pm), with New Cross & Deptford Free Film Festival putting on a Light Houses Winter Wonderland special: 'a world of cinema and moving image projected in people's front room windows... 25 venues will be screening a dazzling range of films, shadows, animations and other moving images through their windows for the delectation of our ambling audience'. Map below, further details here. 

Light Houses: film in the streets of Telegraph Hill

One of the highlights of this year's New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival was Light Houses, where people projected films in their windows for passers-by to watch from the street. Now Cinetopia, who helped organise it, are planning a second Light Houses event on Sunday 8 December. They say:

'For those who don't know about this, Light Houses gives local residents the chance to turn their front room windows into mini cinema screens for the evening...The idea is to use a projector to screen a film onto your window which can be seen from the street. The audience then amble around the streets enjoying a wide range of cinematic delights and meeting the neighbours. This year we had home-made animations, pet videos, themed compilations and even foetal scans. The choice of film is up to you. The December event will run from 5 pm to 8 pm and we can provide technical advice if needed'.

It's fairly straightforward if you have or can borrow a digital projector, you just stick a sheet or better still a shower curtain up in the window and away you go. If you are interested in taking part please contact cinetopia@hotmail.co.uk

The area included is broadly the Telegraph Hill area, as shown in the map below showing where films were shown last May.

NXD Free Film Festival closing weekend

It's the last weekend of the New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2013, and there's lots to do. Today's events include

13.00 h - Function and Purpose at Old Tidemill School  SE8 - an afternoon of workshops and short films inspired by the counter-cultural bible the Whole Earth Catalogue.

14.00 h - Cinema Paradiso at London Theatre

14.00 h -Circus at Sanford Housing Co-op (Cold Blow Lane SE14): a 2010 film looking behind the scenes at New York's Big Apple Circus. Plus there willl be a juggling/circus skills workshop and live music in Sanford's garden from 4 pm.

19.30 h - Tulennielija (Fire Eater) Sanford Housing Co-op

20.00 h - ET in Telegraph Hill Upper Park - a cycle powered showing complete with great sunset view of the London skyline.

Full details here.

Free Park Films

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival has now started, and tonight's big bike-powered movie is Skyfall in Fordham Park at 8.00 pm, featuring of course the famous New Cross and Deptford scenes. Forecast is that any afternoon rain will have cleared by then so don't worry about the weather - anyway last year's Fordham Park event went ahead despite heavy showers.

Next Saturday 4th May, E.T. is being shown in Telegraph Hill Park

Lots more free events - programme here

Made in Lewisham: 100 years of Cinema

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival features an illustrated talk 'Made in Lewisham - 100 years of Cinema' with Neil Gordon-Orr. The talk will focus on New Cross, Deptford and Brockley in particular, looking at the places where people have watched films and the places films have been made in. Basically a visual tour of lost cinema buildings combined with a guide to local film locations, with film clips and photos.

Tuesday 30 April 2013, 8 pm (doors open 7:30 pm) at the Hill Station Cafe, Kitto Road, SE14.

Admission Free.

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2013

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival takes place from 26 April to 5 May and as the names suggests will feature free film showings in lots of interesting venues locally - including Fordham Park, Sanford Housing Co-op, the Amersham Arms, Big Red Pizzeria, the Hill Station, Goldsmiths, Telegraph Hill Park, Tidemill Old School, London Theatre, King of Hearts Tattoo Parlour and New Cross Learning - full programme here.

The first festival last year was a great success, Pasolini's Gospel According to Saint Matthew at St Nicholas Church being a particular highlight for me. Over the next few weeks I will be featuring some of the events in more detail, including a couple I'm helping out with.

Just to mention one for now, on 2 May houses around the Telegraph Hill area will be projecting films into their front windows so you will be able to wander around watching movies.

It was a wonderful film

Christmas officially started for me last night with a free showing of 'It's a Wonderful Life' at St Catherine's Church, SE14. There was a good crowd who cheered appreciatively at the end after an evening of dabbing their eyes in the dark. I'd forgotten how topical Frank Capra's 1946 film is, it's all about banking, debt, and housing, as well as angels obviously. Mean old Potter, the ruthless businessman, is determined to put Bailey's uneconomic building society out of business because in lending money for houses to people not deemed credit-worthy it is not only undermining Potter's rental incomce as a landlord, but  creating a 'discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty, working class'.

This recalls some of the discussions going on around 'moral hazard' and the Occupy movement's Rolling Jubilee campaign in the States (which Goldsmiths' David Graeber is involved in), where the campaign to relieve debts and prevent foreclosures is coming up against the bankers' notion that is wrong to allow people to stay in homes when they can't pay their mortgage because it undermines the threat to others.

Anyway the Church was nicely lit with a Christmas tree and candles.

The film show was also a curtain raiser for next years' New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival, which will take place from 26 April to 5 May 2013. Watch out for details of planning meetings early in the New Year.

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2013

Last Spring's New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival was a great success with all kinds of interesting events happening across SE8/SE14 (see report here). My personal favourite was seeing Pasolini's Gospel According to Saint Matthew in a dark St Nicholas Church.

Planning is already starting for next year's festival, with a meeting taking place on Monday 26 November, 8.00 upstairs at the Amersham Arms in New Cross. If you've got an idea for a film, cinema-themed event or interesting venue, or you just want to help out, come along.