Beyond the Trees

Mariam Zulfiqar and Dr David Edwards

In this essay on Ruth Maclennan’s Treeline, Mariam Zulfiqar and Dr David Edwards consider the wider botanical, cultural and geopolitical resonances that are opened up by the work.

A voice comes to one in the dark

Brian Dillon

Brian Dillon examines themes of the past, present and future in Patrick Hough's The Black River of Herself. 

View the storyboard-illustrated PDF of this text here. 

Pandaemonium

Nathalie Olah

Nathalie Olah considers the intimate nature of the human-animal bond in Toby Parker Rees's film the great dog, Pan.

Interrupting the Pan: Marine Hugonnier’s ‘Ariana’

Michael Newman

In this essay, critic Michael Newman traces the evolution of the panorama and its importance as a motif in Marine Hugonnier’s beautifully rounded portrait of Afghanistan.

No End In Sight

Steven Bode

As the latest chapter of Afghanistan’s repeating cycle of history seems set to start, Steven Bode looks back at Marine Hugonnier’s Ariana and its resonance for the present moment.

words sketched onto the night’s taut skin

Elhum Shakerifar

Elhum Shakerifar reflects on Maryam Tafakory's film Nazarbazi, and the prohibition against touching in Iranian cinema that is the film's recurring motif.

The Fish Is Still Raw

Belinda Zhawi

Poet and artist Belinda Zhawi draws on her own unique experience of language and food in this essay on Kondo Heller's MU/T/T/ER. 

Watch MU/T/T/ER by Kondo Heller now on FVU Watch.

The Young Dog at the Zoo

Stewart Lee

Stand-up comedian, writer and director Stewart Lee asks whether comedy can ever be art in his essay on Patrick Goddard's film Animal Antics. 

Quarantaine: Taking Possession in Three Acts

Dominic Paterson

Dominic Paterson (The Hunterian, The University of Glasgow) explores Georgina Starr's Quarantaine within the context of avant-garde cinema and theory.

So Far, and Yet So Near

Steven Bode

Graham Gussin's Remote Viewer was made twenty years ago this year. From a distance of two decades, Steven Bode reflects on how much it resonates with the present.

Remote Viewer: Live Transmission

Graham Gussin, Steven Bode and Chris Darke

A conversation between Graham Gussin and Steven Bode.  Interlocutor: Chris Darke

Marooned

Steven Bode

With Paul Rooney's Dust and Bellevue available on FVU Watch, Steven Bode reflects on their themes of limbo and confinement one year into the global pandemic.

Notes on ‘The Bird Game’

Steven Bode

To accompany Marianna Simnett's The Bird Game and Confessions of a Crow, Steven Bode adds some supplementary notes.

The Fluidity of Care

Rebekah Taussig

Writer Rebekah Taussig explores how caregiving is both a personal and communal experience in this powerful response to Kyla Harris and Lou Macnamara's It's Personal.

Together, Alone: Watching Sandra Lahire in Lockdown

Rachel Pronger

Michael O'Pray Prize runner-up Rachel Pronger discovers in the experimental work of a pioneering filmmaker a familiar tension between the social being and the individual body.

Alberta Whittle: RESET

Harvey Dimond

Harvey Dimond explores the historical resonances of this slavery-referencing artwork made during a suffocating pandemic

Lutz Mommartz’s Own Private Idyll

Mimi Howard

Winner of the Michael O'Pray Prize 2020, Mimi Howard finds that there are oblique ways to engage with tumultuous times.