Creating productive frictions inspired by buildings’ current and historic use, artists present new moving image works in Berwick’s Gymnasium Gallery, Town Hall, Visitor Centre, an 18th century ammunition store and a former Thorntons shop on Marygate.

All exhibitions are free, open daily 10:00-17:00, 3-5 March.

culture • Dir. Fairuz Ghammam • Belgium • 2022 • 15 mins

Cultuur • Dir. Fairuz Ghammam • Belgium • 2022 • 15 mins • Venue: Town Hall Council Chamber

Belgian filmmaker and cinematographer Fairuz Ghammam’s warm, generous work explores aspects of (auto)biography, shared authorship, and collaborative practices.

Staged as a walk through her hometown, Kortrijk, Culture riffs on these themes, sewing kernels of family history through a narrative, and a gaze, that oscillates between private and public space. How many memories and storylines can coexist?

Hidden Amongst Clouds • Dir. Christopher Ulutupu • New Zealand • 2021 • 13 mins

Hidden Amongst Clouds • Dir. Christopher Ulutupu • New Zealand • 2021 • 13 mins • Venue: The Gymnasium

Drawing on the filmmaker’s real-life experiences growing up in a large Samoan family in the largely Pākehā populated region of Nelson, Hidden Amongst Clouds newly imagines stories of Samoan mythology and questions the moral virtues that they uphold. The work embraces a 1990’s aesthetic, harking back to supernatural fantasy television series and their embedded symbolisms, reflecting Ulutupu’s ongoing interest in themes of belonging and the importance of recontextualising and reimagining narratives of colonial stereotypes.

Paradiso, XXXI, 108 • Dir. Kamal Aljafari • Germany, Palestine • 2022 • 18 mins

Paradiso, XXXI, 108 • Dir. Kamal Aljafari • Germany, Palestine • 2022 • 18 mins • Venue: The Magazine

As chilling as it is absurd, Kamal Aljafari’s Paradiso repurposes found footage from Israeli military propaganda and turns it into a fictional drama of men playing at war. Aljafari takes the title from a short story by Borges and describes the work as a “cinematic self-portrait” – questioning our interpretation of screen violence, its relationship to real-world horrors, and troubling our positionality as spectators.

Everyday Apocalypse • Pr. Kimberley O’Neill • UK • 2020 • 8 mins

SCREENTIME: Everyday Apocalypse • Pr. Kimberley O’Neill • UK • 2020 • 8 mins • Venue: Berwick Visitors Centre

Everyday Apocalypse is a new short film made by four local young people, developed in collaboration with artist Kimberley O’Neill, exploring our shared experiences of lockdown. Over a three week period in August, the group met via Zoom to share stories and develop the film. Through a series of online workshops, the young people were introduced to lo-fi mobile-phone filmmaking techniques and used writing exercises to generate ideas—expanding their personal quarantine anecdotes into subjects and locations for the film.

In10ded Ten: The Fate of the Middle Place • Pr. Kimberley O’Neill • UK • 2021 • 7 mins

SCREENTIME: In10ded Ten: The Fate of the Middle Place • Pr. Kimberley O’Neill • UK • 2021 • 7 mins • Venue: Berwick Visitors Centre

A collaborative film made by Berwick Young Filmmakers (a group of local 12–14 year olds). The film was produced over five days of workshops led by artist Kimberley O’Neill, which introduced the group to digital filmmaking and documentary techniques. The film that the Berwick Young Filmmakers have produced together, explores the theme ‘Reworld’—speculating on what life in the year 2031 could be like and imagining how people, technology and nature may change in the near future.

tempo • Dir. Yu Araki • Japan • 2022 • 20 mins

tempo • Dir. Yu Araki • Japan • 2022 • 20 mins • Venue: 22 Marygate

A quiet, atmospheric portrait of an elderly store owner in the small town of Yagi, Kyoto Prefecture. Yu Araki’s camera carefully observes the curiously named Mr. Yagi’s daily routine and interactions with local customers during the last autumn season for his shop, which is no longer in business. Documenting the passage of time in parallel with processes of depopulation, the title Tempo conjures a double meaning; playing on the Japanese word “tenpo (店舗)” which means “store”.

Thank you to English Heritage, Berwick Visitors Centre, Edwin Thompson and The Freemen of Berwick-upon-Tweed for allowing us the use of their spaces for exhibition venues.