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The College is pleased to bring a vibrant, eclectic programme for its 2022 Essay Film Festival, curated by ����logo��� Institute for the Moving Image, which will take place from 19 March until 23 April across a number of venues:  the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), ����logo��� Cinema, Bertha DocHouse, and the Goethe Institute – as well as online via a dedicated Screening Room.  

Creative and critical, performative and political, the essay film is the cutting edge of cinema’s engagement with the world. The essay film has become one of the key focal points of ����logo��� Institute for the Moving Image’s (BIMI) activities since the first Essay Film Festival in 2015. Although the main festival takes place in March-April each year, BIMI organises essay-related screenings and events as part of its general programme. 

The programming reflects an open and inclusive idea of the essay film, a hybrid form that brings together elements of documentary and experimental filmmaking into a highly personal and often politically engaged mode of expression. 

Michael Temple, Director of ����logo��� Institute for the Moving Image and Essay Film Festival, said, “It is great to be able to share these films with our audiences both in cinemas and online. There is so much creativity in the essay film and it speaks to important contemporary issues with originality and imagination.” 

At the ICA, from 19 to 20 March, in partnership with Cinenova, the Essay Film Festival presents ‘The Work We Share’: four programmes of recently restored films made by women from the UK, USA, Jamaica, Australia, and Italy, exploring diverse aspects of women’s political struggles and everyday experiences through a wide range of formal approaches, critical interventions, and ethical initiatives. Three works explore questions around black women’s identity and subjectivity. 

Other works include a contemporary essay film by Giovanni Cioni, whose From the Planet of the Humans is a philosophical and playful rumination on migration, memory, mortality, and the fragility of existence.  

Through an online platform on 25 March, viewers can access a wide selection of works by Paige Taul, one of the most exciting young filmmakers of the moment, whose short films reflect upon myriad facets of Black lives in the USA and elsewhere, often drawing on the artist’s personal experiences, family memories, and popular cultural references.  

Also online, the festival presents two programmes concerned with past and present aspects of Serbian history and culture. Ivan Jović’s Legacy is a powerful collective testimony of the Serbian survivors of the genocide committed by the Independent State of Croatia during World War Two, while Tea Lukač’s Roots is an elegant and reflective study of the people and environment of her hometown in Croatia. The filmmakers will be taking part in live online discussions on 26 March and 28 March respectively.