Media & Communications events
Goldsmiths Gold mine
Speakers from all sectors of the creative industries take the stage in New Cross
A new weekly Forum brings to the college the creative contacts of the many different interests within the Department of Media and Communications. Each week this Autumn, late on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, public figures from broadcasting, journalism and film come to Goldsmiths to talk to and answer the questions of students and academics. Combining the forces of Goldsmiths’ Screen School and Leverhulme Media Research Centre, our industry connections have produced visiting speakers that include writers and filmmakers, cinematographers and foreign correspondents.
One starry writers’ night features a joint event with the English department, when ‘Radical Lawyer’ Michael Mansfield Q.C. and Irish writer Colm Toibin take the stage of the Ian Gulland Theatre in turn, on 14 October. First, legal fireworks in the memoirs of the man who represented everyone from the Birmingham Six to the Stephen Lawrence family. With contemporary film clips, Mansfield recounts how his defence of the striking miners in 1984 nearly led to him being dis-barred, and how many prominent cases he has represented have won him more enemies than admirers. Then Blake Morrison introduces the latest of his Richard Hoggart Memorial speakers. The revered Irish novelist Colm Toibin talks about his latest novel, Brooklyn, and an extraordinary career also taking in journalism, criticism, playwriting and short stories.
Journalists feature strongly on the Forum agenda. The Daily Mail’s Dame Ann Leslie is the doyen of foreign correspondents and her recently published memoirs, Killing My Own Snakes, contains not just a terrific bunch of stories but a sustained critique of gender politics in newspapers. Joris Luyendijk is an award-winning Dutch news correspondent, for both newspapers and television, and his five years reporting the Middle East is the subject of a riveting and controversial book, Almost Human. Ann Leslie is at the Goldsmiths Forum on 22 October; Joris Luyendijk on 7 October.
Television is another key medium well aired in the Forum. Richard Godfrey was until recently Head of Programming for MTV Europe, and still produces the MTV Awards. On 18 November, he brings a unique insight into the priorities and business of entertainment television, and reveals how he developed successful shows like The Osbournes and Pimp My Ride. At the top of the broadcast hierarchy sits the BBC’s Director of Vision, Jana Bennett, who talks of her responsibility for the corporation’s television and web presence at a time when the BBC is taking sustained attack from all quarters. When she appears on 11 November, she will be asked to speculate what future careers in television may hold, and whether there will be a BBC to work for.
With a strong tradition of documentary at Goldsmiths, documentary filmmakers are also frequent visitors. On 29 October, Jerry Rothwell (director of documentary features Deep Water and Heavy Load) gives a guided tour of the director’s art, with particular tips for aspiring filmmakers. Another film craft is duly showcased when one of Britain’s top cinematographers, Brian Tufano, gives a masterclass in feature film cinematography. (Date yet to be confirmed). And the Forum ends term on a high with international film director Sally Potter, whose latest feature Rage - premiered at the Berlin Film Festival - is the first to be released initially in the UK on mobile phone. She appears with her composer Fred Frith on 10 December, and talks passionately about the importance of music in film.
The evening concludes with a concert in the Great Hall, featuring Fred Frith & Chris Cutler.