The Congress + recorded introduction

Ari Folman follows his ground-breaking animated documentary WALTZ WITH BASHIR with an equally bold and brilliant movie. Miramount Studio offers Robin Wright a deal that will guarantee her riches for life and fame well beyond that. They want to scan her, sample her, and take full rights to the virtual Robin Wright, the first true movie immortal. Only one condition: she must never act again. A visionary film that takes its place alongside BRAZIL, BLADE RUNNER and SOLARIS, THE CONGRESS is both savagely funny and surprisingly moving.

The screening will be preceded by a recorded introduction from Artist and Near Now Fellow Adham Faramawy.

This screening complements Faramawy's research and interest in works that present a variety of often problematic approaches to the body, exploring perspectives that reframe the body as a plastic process, porous and adaptable, denaturalised, magic, science-fictive and miraculous.

Why we're doing this:
We're celebrating cinema's connection to visual and digital arts with an ongoing series of screenings selected by the creative community supported through Near Now, our studio for arts, design and innovation.

We are inviting artists to select films that have influenced their creative practice or that share themes being explored in their current work.

Further info about this screening and upcoming screenings selected by Adham:
Artist and Near Now Fellow Adham Faramawy has identified a selection of films that undermine the idea of the human body as a singular entity, exploding the idea of the body as a discreet biological category. Sometimes literally.

These screenings, starting with THE CONGRESS, complement Adham's current research into themes of 'porous bodies'. They present a variety of often problematic approaches to the body, exploring perspectives that reframe the body as a plastic process, porous and adaptable, denaturalised, magic, science-fictive and miraculous.

Artist Adham Faramawy makes work existing at the intersection of the body with technology. He uses a wide variety of media, from computer programs and apps, to perfume and print. Much of his work revolves around performance for camera and sculptural assemblage. Inspired by the language of advertising, Faramawy co-opts the techniques and special effects used to evoke desire for people, things and experiences. He combines the seductive devices of slipperiness, morphing and repetition with an interest in the transgressive aesthetics of ‘body horror’ found in cult cinema, animation and literature. www.adhamfaramawy.com

Through Broadway's Near Now Fellowship, Adham is focusing on ideas of immersive viewing and how performing bodies can engage with and be augmented by animated digital objects. Find out more about the Near Now Fellowship and Adham's work at www.nearnow.org.uk.

The Near Now Fellowship is Broadway's artistic and professional development programme, supported by Arts Council England.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL START PROMPTLY AT THE ADVERTISED TIME**