| AIR & SPACE OVERVIEW |
Tuesday 25th November 8pm
The Arts Catalyst presents an evening of films recalling the early days of the space race. Programmed by Andrew Kotting, Louise K Wilson & Arts Catalyst. In association with Lux/
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English Folk Dance and Song Society, Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1
'I see the earth from space: it is beautiful.' These words have gone down in history as the first official utterance made by Yuri Gagarin in space. In reality, the flight transcript from Commander Gagarin's Vostok craft reveals that the pioneer Russian cosmonaut's actual first words translate more as, 'Everything normal - the equipment is working perfectly'. Gagarin's observation shows a touching faith in his instrument panel.
Everything Normal presents a selection of original short films from the cold war era, together with more modern offerings which pay homage to those grainy glory days - reflecting a time when men revelled in the company of their machines, the British space effort still existed, Heroic Soviet Achievements matched American Know-How, and with just a little more tinkering with our rockets we would all be living on the moon by 1980.
First film off the launchpad is Attention Weightlessness! - an excellent Soviet educational film from 1962 which shows scientists, cats and dogs enjoying the newly discovered joys of weightlessness as they tumble about onboard the precarious jet flights which prepared the way for gravity-defying space travel. The programme continues with the story of the conversion of a Latvian Radio Telescope for artistic purposes, a film about an air-traffic controllers' cycling club who ride in formation down the runway, and films made by artists about the Baikonour Cosmodrome.
Mission controller of the second half of the programme is British Lunatic Genius Andrew Kotting (maker of Gallivant and This Filthy Earth). Kotting shows film Too G, made during an Arts Catalyst zero gravity flight; then presents a rather eccentric selection of shorts which includes Steve Sullivan's A Whole Heap of Trouble, Guy Maddin's The Heart of the World, Phil Hall's Geoff World Destroyer and many other films which have absolutely nothing to do with the evening's otherwise admirable educational aims and purposes.
English Folk Dance and Song Society, Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY
