Yasmin Ali

Weblinks

University of Strathclyde Department of Architecture - here

Chris Leslie Photographer - here

Murray Grigor IMDB - here

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As part of the architecture postgraduate, Strathclyde University is running a series of symposia, and opening these up to the public as guests and architectural professionals as CPD events. The first of these was themed around film and architecture and urban spaces, and featured talks and footage from two Glasgow filmmakers, Chris Leslie and Murray Grigor.

The first of these, Chris Leslie, is a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Glasgow. His work has a recurring theme of issues concerning memories, loss and community, and he specialises in multimedia documentation of Glasgow’s often controversial regeneration programmes, including those areas like Sighthill and Dalmarnock recently affected by the advent of the Commonwealth Games development programme.

He spoke of his Masters’ work documenting the plight of Dalmarnock homeowners the Jaconelli family, to be offered fair compensation for the value for their house in an area earmarked for redevelopment for the Games. This culminated in a film The Margaret Jaconelli Eviction (2011), which is part of Leslie’s Glasgow Renaissance project (2008-present) which also includes the films Oatland’s Memoir, Paddy’s Market, Sighthill, Red Road Underground and more recently, Destitutions (2012). Leslie has also lived and worked extensively in Bosnia, and launched his debut feature-length documentaryFinding Family, at the 2013 Sarajevo film festival.

After a short break for the bar and informal conversation amongst guests the programme continued with Murray Grigor, an esteemed Glasgow filmmaker who began his career with the BBC and has since had chief positions at Channel 4 and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He is well known for his presentation in film of a poetic history of architecture and art, and has documented several eminent architects including Robert Adam, John Lautner, Sir John Soane, Frank Lloyd Wright, Carlo Scarpa, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. With a career spanning over five decades and over fifty films, and a significant contribution to architecture and the arts, Grigor holds fellow titles of both the RSA and RIBA.

This evening he presented films documenting Cardross Seminary by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, and an hour-long documentary on the work of Alexander Graham Thomson. The film about Cardross Seminary was innovative in that it features a split-screen of two items of footage, years apart, shot at the same scenes synchronised and set to a soundtrack composed by Frank Spedding. The left frame was in colour and showed the building in use by monks and the right, in black and white showed the building in dereliction in black and white, at the same camera angles for the respective clips. The juxtaposition is powerful, particularly the lasting image of a now ghostly vacant altar without its crucifix. The film is testament to the pervasiveness of cinema as a communicative artistic medium.

Grigor also screened another of his films, a documentary about Alexander Thomson, known best for the Greek motifs throughout his work, but lesser known for his Egyptian and Semitic influences. The film went in depth to survey extant, unbuilt and remaining of Thomson’s works, and the conservation movement to save some of his buildings. There was the rare opportunity to see inside some of his buildings, as well as visualisations of buildings that have been demolished or damaged by fire. Also portrayed was a contrast with the work of Schinkel who was influenced by Thomson, and interviews with eminent historians and architects who admire Thomson’s style.

// A.C.T Symposium 1: Film, Architecture and The City, Architecture Culture Technology Unit, University of Strathclyde. This is part of a series of four symposia running weekly on Thursday evenings, 4-7pm, until and including the 27th February, except the 13th.