Film at the Tate: Best London cinema
There are innumerable visitors to Tate Modern and Tate Britain every year, but their film selections remain in-the-know events
Given the extraordinary number of visitors that the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain attract each year, we're always surprised by how few attend their selection of contemporary cinema. Minimal publicity ensures that these evenings are in-the-know events.
This season, the Tate selections offer something for everyone - as long as you like experimental film, that is- from cutting edge shorts to full-length classic ‘art-house’ works.
Be sure to catch at least one of the Assembly series, showing at the Tate Britain from now until the 15 of March. Just looking at the line-up, it is clear that this survey of recent artists’ film in Britain has been beautifully curated, and I look forward to seeing how these seminal works sit side by side. If you only attend one showing, I would recommend Assembly: Close at Hand I (Sunday 9 February), which pairs The Arbor , a documentary/dramatisation of the life of playwright Andrea Dunbar, with the deliberately measured Two Years At Sea from director Ben Rivers. Other highlights include the aesthetic bombardment of films in the Composite II selection on 10 March, and what promises to be an entertaining closing party on the 15 of that month.
Also at Tate Britain, next month’s Late at Tate (Friday 7 February) focuses on young filmmakers and promises a plethora of inventive shorts and guerrilla performances. This free night is always fun, but with video art proving such a fertile field at the moment, February is the month to meet the Next Big Thing, before they win the Turner Prize a la Steve McQueen.
Over at the Tate Modern, the concealed Starr Auditorium is showing a programme that includes a celebration of alternative culture in 1980s Berlin-Ute Aurand 2: Berlin Babylon (Saturday 22 February)- and ambitious work by Camille Henrot (Friday 28 February). The latter is followed by a discussion between Henrot herself, with Dan Fox, editor of the contemporary art magazine Frieze: an exceptional platform.
This year there is so much great material being offered by these two institutions that you may feel torn, but tickets for most events are only five pounds, with concessions available for even less. We suggest treating yourself each weekend to a slice of London culture, and relocating from your local cinema to one of the Tate galleries.
Click here for a full list of Tate Film.