Saffron Screen - Saffron Walden's independent community cinema - will host two director Q&As this December, hosted by Rebecca del Tufo.
On Friday, December 8, director Carol Morley will present her film Typist Artist Pirate King.
The British road movie follows the real-life eccentric artist, outsider and rebel Audrey Amiss, played by Monica Dolan, who persuades her psychiatric nurse Sandra Panza, played by Kelly Macdonald, to drive her from London to her birthplace in Sunderland for an exhibition of her art.
Rooted in the side roads of England, the film incorporates dark humour, magic realism, images of Audrey's art and an examination of mental health care.
The film was described by magazine Little White Lies as “a delight, which cleverly picks apart the clichés of the timeworn artist biopic".
Carol will share with audiences her discovery of the work of Audrey Amiss when she became obsessed with Audrey's uncatalogued archive of paintings, sketches, scrapbooks, letters and diaries.
She said: "When I tell stories, I desire to bring something more than the darkness - I want to bring humour, kindness, connection, light and hope, the possibility of something to make us all carry on."
Carol was previously invited to Saffron Screen to discuss her films The Falling and Out of Blue, but this is the first time she was able to secure the dates.
The following day, Saturday, December 9, Saffron Screen is welcoming director Craig McCall for a screening of his 2010 film Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff.
This film will be screened as part of the national celebrations of the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, with whom Saffron Walden local Jack worked on films including A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus.
Craig's film weaves an extensive interview with Jack Cardiff, shot in his house on Saffron Walden's High Street, with behind-the-scenes footage from the sets he worked on, interviews with cinema legends such as Martin Scorsese and Lauren Bacall, and a review of the portraits Jack took of actresses he worked with.
The Q&A will give audiences a chance to hear about one of Saffron Walden's most famous residents - and to remember a time when an Oscar lived on the High Street.
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Jack Cardiff, who died in 2009, was the first person to come to Saffron Screen for a Q&A, during the opening weekend in 2007.
Tickets for the Q&As can be booked online at www.saffronscreen.com, or bought from the tourist information centre.
The Q&As will be hosted by Rebecca del Tufo, former programmer at Saffron Screen.
She said: "I am delighted to return to Saffron Walden to talk to these two superb directors about their films which will touch all audiences."
Saffron Screen's business manager Jason Bond added: "After feedback from our audience, we wanted to extend our offering to the local community and film fans.
"We can’t wait to host these two Q&As with acclaimed British film directors at Saffron Screen!"
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