‘Fictional Revenge/Fictional Healing?’ GAMIS announce first film season of 2024
Local cinema collective GAMIS (Glasgow Artists’ Moving Image Studios) are back projecting films in an old furniture store on Niddrie Road. We catch up with co-director Lydia Honeybone to talk about their latest season.
Words by Jack Howse | Photos by Neil Scott
Did you know Govanhill once had five picturehouses around the neighbourhood? Sadly they are all no more, but GAMIS are on a mission to bring the cinema experience back to the Southside. In 2021, they started showing films in Batson Lab - a disused car park next to the Govanhill Picture House. In 2022, they took over a section of the furniture warehouse on Niddrie Road to open The Phoenix Cinema.
And now they’ve unveiled plans for this year’s screenings – part of the BFI Cinema Unbound, the creative worlds of Powell + Pressburger. Powell + Pressburger are perhaps Britain’s most prolific and revered director partnership. They collaborated on 24 films 1939-1972 including The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death.
While the pair are critical darlings, they may seem an odd choice for GAMIS to host a season of. GAMIS are known for their bold, experimental and mostly contemporary programme of curated films. What’s more much of Powell and Pressburger’s work is marred in its antiquated depictions and ideas of race and gender.
But when a opportunity to be part of the BFI’s major retrospective of the duo came along, GAMIS jumped at the chance, especially since the season has been funded.
We talk with GAMIS co-director Lydia Honeybone about they hope to create conversations around watching with films with dated perspectives by pairing these films with contemporary shorts – and the future of GAMIS.
What was the thinking behind your first season for 2024? Was it important to you to balance Powell + Pressburger against more contemporary voices?
When Film Hub Scotland announced that there was going to be funding available as part of a national retrospective on the filmmaking duo, my first reaction was huge enthusiasm - my next thought was, ‘oh no, what about the racism, gender stereotypes and misogony?!’
In pairing contemporary artists’ films with Powell + Pressburger classics we set out to ‘trouble’ these controversial filmmaking practices of the time. Not necessarily to reconcile them but bring them into the light and ask, “in these times of cancel culture, how can we hold space for our film heritage that contains both problematic elements and also immense cultural importance and creative inspiration for future generations?”
Do you think it is important to interact with art that might be seen as outdated and problematic?
Absolutely but not necessarily in every case. We don’t want to make anyone feel hurt or offended but sometimes we need to feel uncomfortable in order to work through the complexities of our cultural heritage. One of the artists on the programme, Michelle Williams Gamaker, calls her approach to this, ‘Fictional Revenge / Fictional Healing’.
What is your pick of the programme?
I honestly love all of the contemporary titles in the programme equally, they each bring out a different aspect of the Powell + Pressburger archive to ‘trouble’ from the outdated gender roles in The Red Shoes paired with Harry Maberly and Peter McMaster’s work to the connection between espionage and homosexuality in Ungentle by Onyeka Igwe and Huw Lemmey, which we’re screening with an early, rarely shown Powell + Pressubrger, Contraband.
How is GAMIS coming along? Will punters be able to notice any changes to your space for this season of films?
We are making slow progress behind the scenes with all the legal stuff but because we are still waiting on a building warrant from Glasgow City Council, essential building works are still to be completed by the landlords. Meaning, there is still no accessible toilet, central heating or adequate power supply to run the building property.
But thanks to the generous donations to the Crowdfunder, the biggest noticeable difference is that we have seriously upped our game with the equipment we use. We have a brilliant quality projector and sound system, donated by Cinemor77 which has allowed us to also invest in better radio mics and tablet for the welcome desk.
Remaining funds will be used to support additional building and redecoration works once the full lease begins.