John Berger with Tilda Swinton

Derek Jarman Lab director, Bartek Dziadosz

Director of London’s Derek Jarman Film Lab, Bartek Dziadosz, and one of the directors of The Seasons in Quincy: Four portraits of John Berger, will be visiting the Electric Palace in Hastings Old Town this Thursday for a Q&A at 7.30pm, says Annie Waite.

Bartek Dziadosz visits Hastings this week

It’s really special Dziadosz is visiting Hastings for the screening. Having made a successful career as a cinematographer and editor before devoting most of his time to the Lab, Bartek has just finished his doctoral research on editing, and has has made his own documentary on the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, called The Trouble with Being Human These Days, which has screened around the world.

The four films within the screening at the Electric Palace this week are the result of a five-year project to produce a portrait of the intellectual and storyteller John Berger, who sadly died earlier this year.

One of the other directors of the quartet of films at the screening is Tilda Swinton, along with Colin MacCabe and Christopher Roth. They each draw from ideas and motifs from Berger’s own work with the atmosphere of his mountain home:

• Ways of Listening deals with fathers and friendship.
• Spring considers Berger’s writing on our relationship with animals.
• A Song for Politics reflects on politics through archive footage, song and discussion.
• Harvest revisits Quincy to meditate on belonging and continuity with Berger and his son Yves.

Berger’s novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism, Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text.

Live poetry and readings

At the Thursday morning 11am screening, there will be live readings in addition to the film screening. Following John Berger’s example, the show is short and simple – the performance consists of pieces he wrote, read by professional actors.

The film is also part of the Electric Palace’s new Thursday night special dinner and film offer: Enjoy delicious Moroccan cuisine at Café Maroc, followed by a movie treat.

The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger is showing Thursday 16 March, 11am (£5 only, including free soft or hot drink) and 7.30pm.

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