The Creative Influences of Powell and Pressburger
Published November 22, 2023
To celebrate our Powell and Pressburger season here at Exeter Phoenix, we asked some of the fantastic people involved about their experiences, memories and inspirations taken from the films.
The videos below share how their films have influenced the creative practices of artists, researchers and film critics alike.
Michelle Williams Gamaker
Michelle Williams Gamaker is an artist working in moving image. She interrogates cinematic artifice, deploying characters as fictional activists to critique the imperialist storytelling in 20th-century British/Hollywood studio films. She is joint-winner of Film London’s Jarman Award 2020 and is the recipient of FLAMIN’s Production Award for Thieves (2023), her first film in Fictional Revenge, premieres at her exhibition Our Mountains Are Painted on Glass at South London Gallery.
Michelle will be introducing Black Narcissus on Thursday 23 Nov. Her work ‘House of Women’ will be screened before the film.
Pamela Hutchinson
Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance critic, curator and film historian. She is the author of BFI Film Classics on The Red Shoes and Pandora’s Box. Her curation projects include seasons on Marlene Dietrich and Asta Nielsen for BFI Southbank. She edits the Weekly Film Bulletin and she is a columnist for Sight and Sound, writes for The Guardian and her website, SilentLondon.co.uk, is devoted to silent cinema.
Pamela will be hosting the introduction for our screening of The Red Shoes hosted at Exeter Cathedral.
Phil Wickham
Dr Phil Wickham is the curator of The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. He acquires artefacts, oversees the operations of the museum, and works with students and academic staff to highlight the stories the collections can tell us about moving images and the people that made and viewed them. Phil also co-teaches the 3rd year module ‘British Screens’, which looks at the history of moving images in Britain through the holdings of the museum and includes an assessed exhibition.
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum will be hosting the pre-feature talk in Exeter Cathedral's Lady Chapel as part of our The Red Shoes Premier Package.