This Sunday the clocks go back, and suddenly our winter evenings become dark places. So we’re kicking off our winter season of film nights with a movie goes deep underground to meet the homeless people who’ve found shelter in some very dark places.
DARK DAYS
(2001) Directed by Marc Singer, Soundtrack by DJ Shadow
Dark Days is a documentary made by Marc Singer, a British filmmaker. The film follows a group of people living in an abandoned section of the New York City underground railway system. When he relocated from London to Manhattan, Marc Singer was struck by the number of homeless people he had seen throughout the city. Singer had befriended a good number of New York’s homeless and later, after hearing of people living underground in abandoned tunnel systems, he met and became close to a set of folks living in The Freedom Tunnel community stretching north from Penn Station past Harlem. After living with them for a number of months, he decided to create a documentary in order to help them financially. The film’s crew consisted of the subjects themselves, who rigged up makeshift lighting and steadicam dollies, and learned to use a 16mm camera with black & white Kodak film. Singer himself had never been a filmmaker before, and saw the production of Dark Days as a means of gaining better accommodation for the residents of the tunnel. The post-production process took years, as financial difficulties created delays, as did Singer’s insistence of creative control to protect the tunnel residents.
Winner: Audience Award, Sundance 2000 Film Festival
Winner: Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance 2000 Film Festival
Winner: Cinematography Award, Sundance 2000 Film Festival
Winner: Best Documentary Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Winner: Best Documentary Award, 2000 Indie Spirit
“Extraordinary – The Guardian
“A triumph of film making… 5 stars” – Total Film
“An exceptional film… 5 stars” - Uncut
Basement Lecture Theatre 5
17H30, Thursday 01 November
So come and join us for the first film night of the year. It’s free for all SUAS members, and if you’re not a member you can join on the door. We’ll be heading to the pub afterwards for a mild ale and a post-film chat.
To all new and returning students, welcome back to Sheffield. We hope that you didn’t have to queue for as long as some of us had to at registration…
The first thing that we need to do is elect and set up the 2007/2008 SUAS committee. As you may know, the committee will look remarkably different this year than in previous years: SUAS will no longer be exclusively managed and directed by fifth year students: anyone in any year can volunteer to join the SUAS committee and help shape the society and its activities.
Our first meeting will be on Thursday 4 October at 13h00 in the floor 16 well (that’s the double height space just inside the double doors of the studio on floor sixteen). We need spirited and motivated people to organise SUAS. Lectures, film nights, socials, special events, fundraisers. The 2006/2007 committee will be on hand to answer questions, provide suggestions and highlight successes and problems from previous years.
Individual lectures will be advertised nearer the time. Unless otherwise advertised, all lectures start at 17h30 and take place in lecture room 15.9A on floor fifteen of the University of Sheffield Arts Tower.
Those who have been contacted to confirm attendance for the live recording of Countdown on Wednesday 7 February should collect their tickets from the General Office on floor fourteen from late morning on Monday onwards.
RUN LOLA RUN
dir. Tom Tykwer, 1999
17h30, Thursday 1 February
Basement lecture theatre one
Film running time: 77 minutes
SUAS / Landmark members free
SUAS Membership on sale
All good things must come to an end, and with the rapidly approaching launch of the 2007 SUAS Lecture Series, it’s time for the last SUAS film night of the year. It’s also going to be the last SUAS event to be presided over by James, your outgoing SUAS president. That’s because every so often, just like James Bond or Doctor Who, we SUAS presidents metamorphomise into someone new. So from the start of the spring semester next week, the Sheffield University Architecture Society will be under the capable direction of Rosie Greenwood. So why not join us for one last evening in the dark asbestos lined basement of the Arts Tower for something that is, as always, just a little bit special.
A true product of the MTV movie making generation, ‘Run Lola Run’ started with an image in the mind’s eye of director Tom Tykwer - an image of a girl with bright red hair running through a city against walls of bright grafitti and posters. That one image planted itself in Tykwer’s mind and around it came into focus one of the nineties’ finest pieces of young European cinema. Doing things never done before with a tri-perspective story line, Run Lola Run is a heart pounding adventure through the beautiful city streets of Berlin.
As always, we’ll you on Thursday and maybe your retiring society president will be getting the first round in at the pub afterwards.
We’ve pulled all the stops for a one-off SUAS BIG DAY OUT. Every once in a while, something comes our way that is just too good to refuse, and this is no exception.
We have for just **fifteen** lucky SUAS members, **free** audience tickets for a live recording of Channel 4’s legendary afternoon quiz show ‘COUNTDOWN’ on Wednesday 7 February. The show is filmed at the studios of Yorkshire Television in Leeds, and we’ve managed to secure this limited number of seats for one of the last recordings available this spring.
Ever popular with students (obviously not architects) who wake up around three in the afternoon and old age pensionners who have no choice about what’s on the nursing home lounge, ‘COUNTDOWN’ is both one of the longest running game shows in the world (four thousand episodes and counting), and the longest running programme on Channel 4.
With the passing of Richard ‘twice nightly’ Whitely in 2005, the show is now hosted by Mr. Suave himself, Des O’Connor. The beautiful and fearsomely clever Carol Vorderman will also be hand to explain how to get those numbers added
up.
So… if you want to come, all you’ve got to do is respond to the e-mail sent to all architecture staff and students before 16h on Tuesday 30 January. First come, first served, and I’ll keep a list of reserves in case anyone pulls out.
The date: Wednesday 7 February 2007
The time: 13h30 - 16h30
The venue: Yorkshire Television, Leeds
We’ll need to catch a train to Leeds around midday - however if you have your car and can take passengers let us know as parking is available. If you know that you can’t commit to those times, please don’t email.
LE MÉPRIS
dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1963
17h30, Thursday 25 January
Basement lecture theatre one
Film running time: 100 minutes
SUAS / Landmark members free
SUAS Membership on sale
We may have mis-spelt his name on the posters, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the masteful cinematography of Jean-Luc Godard. In this, arguably his finest work, aspiring playwright Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is called in as a script doctor on a film of ‘The Odyssey’. He is caught between a director (Fritz Lang) who wants to capture the reality of Homer’s world and crass produce Prokosch (Jack Palance) who just wants more mermaids. As his artistic integrity gradually succumbs to the power of Prokosch’s cheque book, his wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) regards him with increasing contempt.
The film was largely made in and around the stunning Casa Malaparte on the island of Capri. Designed in the late nineteen-thirties by the Rationalist architect Adalberto Libera, it has recently undergone extensive restoration. Russell Light will give a brief illustrated introduction to the house before the film.
So the Christmas break was just too short, and the exams have just started too soon… you know what you need?
Yes! A SUAS Film Night! A quick two hour break tomorrow night (Thursday) will kill those revision blues in no time! And we’re back with something a bit special (two pound s*** in a one pound bag, as I like to say…)
‘Blade Runner’ meets ‘Sin City’ and stirs in a good dose of darkness. It’s animated French brilliance:
RENAISSANCE
dir. Christian Volckman, 2006
17h30, Thursday 18 January
Basement lecture theatre one
Running time: 105 minutes
SUAS / Landmark members free
SUAS Membership on sale
In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Casting a shadow over everything is the city’s largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export — youth and beauty. In this world of stark contrasts and rigid laws the populace is kept in line and accounted for. Daniel Craig and Catherine McCormack star in this award winning film that will change the way you think about animated film.
It’s that time of the year when the lights of the Arts Tower seem to stay on right round the clock. If you’ve not been going home much lately, then you’ll appreciate our last film night of 2006, a sharp piece of indie-cinema from Canada. Four office employees have all staked one month’s salary on a bet to see who can stay indoors the longest. They all live in the hermetically sealed and air conditioned towers of downtown Calgary, where enclosed glass bridges connect virtually every building in the city’s core. It’s lunchtime on day 28, and things are starting to unravel…
WAYDOWNTOWN
dir. Gary Burns, 2000
17h30, Thursday 14 December
Basement lecture theatre two
SUAS / Landmark members free
SUAS Membership on sale
Join us for festive drinks after the film to celebrate our first full series of film nights and to help us choose what to show next term. We’ll be in the Bath Hotel on Victoria Street (click here for map) after the film. Prove to us that you’ve been working hard enough and we might even buy a drink. See you Thursday…
It seems fitting that in the week that Tony Blair indicates his commitment to replacing Britain’s Trident nuclear defense system, SUAS Film Night heads the archives to find one of the strangest yet most powerful films ever made in Sheffield. Following from an earlier studio showing put on by M.Arch studios 6 and 9, SUAS proudly presents our penultimate show of the year:
THREADS
dir. Mick Jackson, 1984
17h30, Thursday 7 December
Basement lecture theatre one
Running time: 112 minutes
SUAS / Landmark members free
SUAS Membership on sale
Written by Barry Hines and filmed in a carefully researched and theoretically accurate documentary style, ‘Threads’ was made by the BBC for television broadcast in 1984, and has been shown on television only a few times since then. With original broadcast copies hard to come by, the recent re-release is happily free of the usual DVD enhancements… it’s as gritty and direct as it would have been when first seen over twenty years ago.
This film is a once-a-lifetime must see and a horrific reminder of why so many people continue to campaign against the trust placed in a nuclear deterent Don’t miss this opportunity to see a very different future of Sheffield, as seen during the Cold War.
With more than 250 members, SUAS is the social society of the University of Sheffield's architecture department. Run by students for students, we show films, host lectures, put on exhibitions and even have the odd social event.
Not a member?
You should be... SUAS members get discounted tickets to socials and events, free entry to lectures and exclusive entry to film nights.
SUAS membership costs £5 a year, and is on sale at lectures and film nights. Non-members are welcome to talks, but only SUAS and Landmark members may attend film nights.
NEXT SUAS LECTURE
Howard Davies
Atelier Big City, Montréal
18h00, Thursday 15 May
Floor 14 Meeting Room
NEXT SUAS EVENT
tbc, we're all a bit busy right now
NEXT SUAS FILM
Sorry, SUAS film night is just for those long, cold winter nights of the autumn semester. But don't forget that the Film Unit present films at the Union four nights a week from just £1.80 a pop (wow) and the Showroom Cinema has £3.00 student tickets all day Monday and Tuesday.
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