"Film remains completely mystical and mysterious to me" - Nic Roeg (1928 - 2018)

There is an argument that the development of film was suppressed by the coming of sound. Films got bogged down in words and plot which the camera was there only really to capture. Something of the uniqueness, magic and mystery of visual storytelling was diminished.

There were directors such as Powell and Pressburger, Orson Welles and Robert Bresson who hinted at what that unique film language could be and created transformative cinematic experiences. Nic Roeg perhaps more than most, in that cinematically explosive body of work from Performance (1970) to Eureka (1983), stretched and folded the art of visual storytelling into exhilarating new shapes demonstrating that the art of filmmaking was not just about character and plot but about space, time and everything in between. His re-invention of cinematic time and space has had a profound effect and influence on a new generation of filmmakers which will be explored during the festival with guests including Creative Director at HOME and Professor of Film at Manchester Metropolitan University Jason Wood and Writer / Curator Karen Alexander.

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