Danny Graydon

Next Friday, I will be taking part in the “Kubrick Visions” Symposium, hosted by University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative Arts and The St. Albans Museum.

A rightful celebration and exploration of Hertfordshire’s most distinguished cinematic alumni – he lived in picturesque Childwickbury, just outside St.Albans for nearly 40 years –  the symposium, fully supported by The Kubrick Estate, complements the newly-curated exhibition of Stanley Kubrick’s Archives that’s currently running at St.Albans museum and which features never-before-seen material provided by his close collaborators.

(Any chance to see SK’s legendary Archives are an absolute treat for film-fans, I add. I caught the international touring version of the Archives in Gent, Belgium,  a few years back and it was utterly engrossing. The materials relating to Kubrick’s never-produced film on Napoleon in particular show the astounding depth of his research.)

The symposium does offer a particularly intriguing hook, as Kim Walden, of UH’s School of Creative Arts, explains: “Whilst this archive provides a wonderful repository of artefacts, in recent years we have become aware that there are numerous people in and around the region who collaborated with Kubrick including producers, designers, camera assistants, editors and actresses whose stories and experiences of working with Kubrick have not yet been told. 

To coincide with an exhibition planned by the local museum in St Albans to celebrate our local luminary, we decided to conduct as series of oral history interviews with these film industry professionals. The aim is to create  a  ’Living Archive’ which would provide  a unique  insight into Kubrick and his work by colleagues and contemporaries as well as  preserve the  memory of the locally based film industry.”

I’ll be taking part in the climactic panel discussion, “The Legacy of Kubrick”, led by Richard Daniels, who heads up the Kubrick Archives project. Here’s the line-up for the entire day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Geeky observation: note the use of the font used in the credits text of Kubrick’s later films…!)

I’m very much looking forward to this: I’m a huge Kubrick fan and it’ll be a honour (and somewhat nerve-wracking) to discuss his work alongside such esteemed company. If anyone fancies attending what promises to be a highly informative day, please contact Mita Lad at UH for tickets on 01707 285327. The price for the whole day is £35 (with concessions for students).