Magiciens de la Terre: reconsidered, Tate Modern film programme

The carefully curated film showings at the Tate gallery are always inspiring, drawing in a varied but artsy crowd. Since we last whispered about their offerings to you, the popularity of their film series has grown, but despite not hosting evenings quite as clandestine as they once were, we can still wholeheartedly recommend the Starr Auditorium for a interesting Friday night alternative to the standard events in London.

We are particularly looking forward to their imminent Magiciens de la Terre series (11 April - 13 April), named after the radical Pompidou Centre Exhibition in 1989 which brought contemporary ‘non-Western’ art to Paris for the first time.  The opening film in the series will be the beautifully shot, highly controversial essay film ‘Les Statues Meurent Aussi’ (Statues also die) (1953). Directed by Chris Marker, and Alain Resnais, who died in March this year, the 30-minute film is characteristic of the latter in its obsessive interest in time and memory, and the showing will pay unexpected tribute to an extraordinary talent. It will be followed by what is set to be a brilliant a panel conversation, with a line up deep-rooted in London arts including Mark Francis, co-curator of the exhibition and Elvira Dyangani Ose, curator of Modern Art at the Tate. These two great academics will no doubt want to pay their respects to both directors, as well as inviting questions from the floor.

Other sessions will be similarly enlightening, exploring themes of magic, cults and ethno-fictions.  We particularly recommend finishing your weekend with the jubilant and surreal African road-trip movie Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet, showing on the 13th. This will be contrasted with the rarely-screened 1955 documentary Afrique sur Seine, showing at the same time, which attempted to reverse the ethnographic lense back onto Parisian society. It is commonly cited as the first sub-Saharan African film, and this in itself poses questions about culture and identity that are continuingly relevant.

We recommend booking to ensure you don’t miss out, and putting aside a couple of hours to wander around the art galleries and art exhibitions before and afterwards, as these films are sure to be a different spin on your favourite objects within the disused power station. 

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