In association with the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, we are delighted to welcome renowned film critic and theorist Noël Burch to the IFI for this screening and discussion.

As well as academic writings including books on early film, Japanese cinema and the acclaimed Theory of Film Practice, Burch has made several independent features, including the Channel 4-funded What Do Those Old Films Mean? The Forgotten Space is a film essay co-directed with Allan Sekula about globalisation and the sea.
An argumentative visual documentary about the most important processes that affect us today, it follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalised by the global transport system. The sea is forgotten until disaster strikes but perhaps the biggest seagoing disaster is the global supply chain, which – maybe in a more fundamental way than financial speculation – is leading the world to the abyss. (Notes by Rod Stoneman).<