Film screening in the bar and conversation with the director Duncan Pickstock.

 

The film will be presented by the Director. We will then watch the film (around 35 mins) and end up with a debate and discussion about the issues the film raises. Bar will be open.

Hs2 is a high speed rail link between London and Birmingham. It was initially lauded as a bold move to remedy the economic divide between the North and South of the country but from its conception the project has been dogged by controversy. Hs2: Whose Line is it Anyway? tries to understand why, when there are so many reasons why it shouldn't, Hs2 keeps moving forward.
The film follows a group of protesters in London who are trying to stop the destruction of a cemetery next to Euston as part of the proposed expansion of the station. We also hear from politicians, journalists, academics and activists who explain how Hs2 and other huge infrastructure schemes like it come into being.
The film uses the experiences of this small group of protesters struggling against the governmental and corporate might of Hs2 as a lens to examine the state of our democracy and to see how the urgent need to reinvigorate the so-called Northern Powerhouse, has been hijacked by powerful groups whose main objective is to transfer public money into private hands.
Duncan Pickstock  is a London based artist and film-maker. His work has been show in museums and galleries in the UK and abroad including The Imperial War Museum, London, The Freud Museum, Culture Park Izmir, Turkey and  MAAT in Lisbon,
His work is in the collections of Nantes Museum of Contemporary Art, The Museum of London, The Ballinglen Foundation and Merseyside Museums and Galleries. For more information see: http://www.duncanpickstock.co.uk