22 April 2009

British filmmaker to speak at Woolf event

Acclaimed independent filmmaker Sally Potter will be at the University of Essex next month as part of a series of events celebrating the work of writer Virginia Woolf.

The filmmaker, whose latest film Rage stars Dame Judi Dench and Jude Law, will be at the University’s Lakeside Theatre on 13 May for an interactive seminar and screening of her 2004 film Yes. It is one in a programme of talks, roundtable discussions, screenings, and contemporary re-readings celebrating and exploring the work of the twentieth-century writer who died in 1941.

Afterlives of Virginia Woolf: Reading Virginia Woolf in Literature, Film and Theatre started on 22 April and will explore how the work of Virginia Woolf has been expressed through different media and genres. As well as the screening of Yes, the programme includes: a talk on modernist women and the visual arts by writer Professor Maggie Humm (22 April); a workshop discussing Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando and a screening of Potter’s 1992 adaptation (22 April); and a screening of the 1997 film Mrs Dalloway starring Vanessa Redgrave and Rupert Graves (6 May).

At the event on 13 May, Sally Potter will talk with Professor Marina Warner from the University’s Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies about her interpretation of Woolf in her 1992 film Orlando. The interactive event will also provide the audience with the opportunity to talk directly to the filmmaker about her art, her influences and her commitment to cinema as a form of education.

Dr Sanja Bahun, who has co-organised the events said: ‘We are witnessing a resurgence of interest in Virginia Woolf’s writing, her public persona, and her activism, among both scholars and the wider public. Therefore, we expect this series of events to be of interest to a wide range of people and so have opened all the events up to the public.’

The Afterlives of Virginia Woolf: Reading Virginia Woolf in Literature, Film and Theatre events start on 22 April and finish on 29 May. All events, which are free to attend, take place at the University’s Colchester Campus and are open to the public. For further information, including a full programme, see www.essex.ac.uk/lifts/WoolfpageTimeline.aspx.

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Notes to editors
For further information, please contact the Communications Office, telephone: 01206 873529 or e-mail: comms@essex.ac.uk.