A very rare screening of two documentaries with John Berger. Gareth Evans will be in conversation with Mike Dibb after the films.

Part of John Berger at 100 - a film and event series (https://www.artsonthegreen.org/berger100)

Film series 02: Once Upon a Time

(Mike Dibb, 1985, UK) 52 mins.

From the series About Time (1983-85; Channel 4 / 3rd Eye): Once upon a Time was filmed entirely in different spaces in and around John Berger’s house in the Haute Savoie in France. It’s a moving and unusual meditation on our experience of time, as revealed through a careful selection of contrasting and thought-provoking time-centred ‘stories’, both old and new. And whether written by himself or others, all were read by John Berger and beautifully edited, using only the filmed images of things found inside the house in books or on the walls, or outside in the surrounding countryside and nearest town.

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A Telling Eye: The Work of John Berger

(Mike Dibb, 1994, UK) 60 mins.

A very rare screening for this survey television overview of Berger's work across all media, featuring interviews with Berger, collaborators and commentators.

“In a career spanning... [six] decades, it’s possible Dibb has shaped more ideas and offered more ways of seeing than any other TV documentarian of his generation.” – Sukhdev Sandhu, The Guardian

Multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker Mike Dibb is perhaps best known for Ways of Seeing, made with John Berger, but he has directed dozens of important films in a career spanning 60 years. Dibb’s work has traversed the fields of post-colonial literature, improvisatory jazz, and the very nature of concepts such as creativity and play. His many award-winning portrait films feature figures as diverse as A.S. Byatt, Salvador Dali, Miles Davis, Stuart Hall, David Hockney, Keith Jarrett, C.L.R. James, Elmore Leonard, Federico García Lorca, Edward Said and Barbara Thompson (https://www.mikedibb.co.uk/ (https://www.mikedibb.co.uk/)).

The writer John Berger was born 100 years ago this 5th November at 1 Filey Avenue, Stoke Newington. The author of more than 60 books, a Booker Prize-winner, filmmaker and artist, he is one of the most influential and loved writers of our times.

Gareth Evans is a Hackney-based writer, editor, film / event producer, creative consultant and host / presenter. He works on special projects for the London Review of Books and curates / hosts their 'Screen at Home' series (garethevans.org.uk/ (http://garethevans.org.uk/)).

John Berger image credit: Wikimedia Commons, user Ji-Elle, shared under license 3.0.

Description supplied by the event organiser.