On Monday 18th December at 2.30pm we attended the 70th Anniversary of BAFTA, at its headquarters in Piccadilly. I was invited by Mr A.A. Reeves, as the David Lean Foundation had funded my doctoral research on Eisenstein's ideas on the audiovisual.
The celebration included a screening of David Lean's film This Happy Breed, which was shown on the large BAFTA screen, in their own cinema. In the programme was my text about a particularly moving scene from this film, which I'd explored from an audiovisual perspective, in my second book Cinema and the Audiovisual Imagination.  
Mr A.A. Reeves of the David Lean Foundation told the audience the story of how BAFTA began, and the key role of David Lean's financial support in its creation, thanks to his extraordinary films, in particular the great success of Lawrence of Arabia. 
it was wonderful to experience This Happy Breed on a big screen. For David Lean it was really his first film, after his collaboration with Noel Coward on In Which We Serve. This Happy Breed was based on a play by Noel Coward. Anthony Havelock Allan produced both films, and according to the other producer and director Ronald Neame, Havelock Allan heard his mother telling someone that her son had produced a film called In This We Breed. 

​The first live outing for Machines at the Hundred Years Gallery last night went very well - it was warmly received by the audience. This music/film, completed this year, is the first of three movements from Diversions. 
Afterwards the artist Jill Rock performed an evocative incantation to the compass points, followed by a virtuosic performance by Ivor Kallin in his piece for customised violin and interpolated spoken words. A break for drinks followed, after which there was a solo performance involving T-shirts and citrus fruit by Mervyn Diese, then an inspired improvisation on the saxophone by Mr Jensen, followed by another break for panettone and drinks - a most convivial evening. 

Here's news of an early première, tomorrow evening! 
​Mid-Winter Solstice : Rude Mechanicals & Guests
Thursday 21st December 7:30 | entry by donation
Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, London E2
Everyone is welcome to the second night of our Mid-Winter celebrations, featuring the legendary Rude Mechanicals & Guests. Celebrated radio personality and improvising polymath Ivor Kallin will play a solo (or perhaps collaborative) set of wild and furious viola and Glaswegian glossolalia. 
Mervyn Diese performs Badger Kull, and to start things off a world premiere screening of composer, writer and filmmaker Robert Robertson‘s River, scored for large orchestra (on the soundtrack... not in the room). 
Gabriella's festive pannetone and chilli brownies free with drinks.
 

NOI, PERSONE SPECIALI - WE, SPECIAL PEOPLE
by Cristina Marchesan
Illustrated by Dennis Dracup
 
I've read this book, and I have much enjoyed it.
It's a very positive experience to read these texts by the various young contributors.
And the images make a very effective counterpoint to the experiences they describe.
There's a sense of delight there too, a pleasant surprise which makes one think about creativity in a different and stimulating way.
It's important to have a book like this at this time, when all kinds of prejudices are currently increasing with regard to people being falsely perceived as being fundamentally different from oneself.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/cristina-marchesan/noi-persone-speciali-we-special-people/paperback/product-23410769.html
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