sarah masen

Pop Culture Debate?

by Linda on Thu Oct 07 08:33:49 +0000 2004 in The Arsenal

May interest those into pop culture.
 connecting with culture: Face to Face 

Monday 25th October, 6.45 – 9.15 pm

 LICC hosts an interactive café style forum that will aim to celebrate, debate, dissect or debunk some of the latest offerings from the world of pop culture. A panel comprising theologians, a film critic and an award-winning documentary maker, will kick off with their opinions and thoughts, before giving you the opportunity to respond as we open up the debate.

 

Hot topics for this first forum include:

 

Reel Life Revolutions?   

Fahrenheit 9/11, Super Size Me, and Naomi Klein’s soon-to-be-released The Take – it looks like 2004 will be remembered as the year that documentary films truly made the transition from small screen to silver screen. Jez Higham, who has directed documentaries from Channel 4’s God Bless Ibiza to Eddie Irvine: The Inside Track, joins LICC’s Jason Gardner and Nick Spencer to discuss the rise and rise of the documentary as ‘prophecy’ for the 21st century.

 

Star Flaws?

In creating Star Wars back in ’77, George Lucas gave birth not just to the modern blockbuster but also the mass marketing of movie tie-ins. And the power of ‘the force’ can still be felt today: the Amazon website alone racked up 50,000 advance orders for last months release of the original trilogy on DVD. However the prequel films have fared less well, receiving critical attacks for poorly developed storylines and characters. Total Film journalist, Nev Pierce, will be here to ask – has George Lucas joined the dark side and allowed the merchandising of Star Wars to overshadow the need for original and compulsive storytelling? Mr Pierce will also give us a roundup of what’s hot and what’s not in up and coming cinema.

  

Coupland’s Curtain Call?

Douglas Coupland is without doubt one of the most insightful, articulate and spiritually literate authors of today. LICC’s Brian Draper will be assessing Coupland’s latest effort Eleanor Rigby. He’ll also review Coupland’s one-man show for the Royal Shakespeare Company, currently showing in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Can Canada’s finest contemporary writer act as well as he scribes? Come along and find out…. 

 

Throughout the evening, you will have plenty of opportunity to air your views on any or all of the above. However forewarned is forearmed, as they say, so if you want to catch up on some of these cultural happenings, here are a few details:

 

Super Size Me, still on limited release in London. To find out more, go to http://www.londonnet.co.uk/films/supersizeme

 

Star Wars Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith is probably available now from a shifty looking bloke with a blanket full of DVD’s on your local high street… Or, why not stay on the right side of the law and buy the original trilogy on DVD? We recommend you go to www.play.com or www.amazon.co.uk where you can pick it up for under £30.

 

Eleanor Rigby is available now in hardback at a bookstore near you. Go to www.amazon.co.uk where you can buy this book for £9.59 – saving 40% off the usual price. Read Brian Draper’s review of the book at http://www.licc.org.uk/culture/eleanor-rigby

 

September 10, 2001 – Coupland’s one-man show at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. For more details, go to http://www.coupland.com/news

 

Join the online debate on documentary makers such as Michael Moore at www.licc.org.uk/culture

Context