Dark Pictures: Post-Industrial Sound and Image Landscape

Test Dept formed in the decaying docklands of South London in 1981. The group made raw, visceral music out of re- purposed scrap metal and machinery from industrial waste ground and derelict factories; a percussive sound with a political edge performed live against monumental slide and film projections in recently abandoned industrial spaces. Inspired by the revolutionary Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov, the group’s ironic rendering of the unemployed artist into the Stakhanovite myth of the heroic Soviet worker, was caught first on film and then on the new celluloid of video. Test Dept made a unique contribution to underground culture of the 1980s and 1990s, operating at the front line of struggles that are still playing out in the present day. With their new film DS30, founding members of Test Dept re-emerged in 2014 to engage with the current cultural and political climate, exploring new ways of expression and digitally reanimating their archive. This special screening includes a Q&A session with founding members of Test Dept, Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy.

Saturday 12th Sept 8pm, Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge:

http://www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/film/dark-pictures-post-industri...