A Year in a Field - US Premiere!
A Year in a Field
The Philosophical Research Society and Los Angeles Filmforum present
A Year in a Field, by Christopher Morris
US Premiere!
Friday November 20, 2024, 7:00pm
At the Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles
Live conversation after with director Christopher Morris by Zoom from Cornwall, with author and musician Will Sheff (of Okkervil River, and of Cornish heritage).
NOTE THE CHANGE IN DAY, TIME, and LOCATION
Tickets: $10 general, free for Filmforum members with code to be emailed separately
At https://www.eventbrite.com/e/christopher-morris-a-year-in-a-field-us-premiere-of-acclaimed-documentary-tickets-1041714705727
Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.
As the year draws to a close, The Philosophical Research Society & Los Angeles Filmforum ares honored to host the US premiere of the acclaimed and beautifully contemplative new documentary from BAFTA-winning documentarian Christopher Morris – A YEAR IN A FIELD.
Morris invites us to slow down, as he films for a year in a West Cornwall field; to immerse ourselves in this quiet, direct-action of stillness, to take a breath and reflect on the planetary impacts of our brief human existence, under the watchful gaze of the Longstone, a 4,000-year-old standing stone that predominates this elemental landscape.
From Winter Solstice 2020 to Winter Solstice 2021, a string of unprecedented worldwide climate disasters, met by weak global political resolve, are revealed as just fleeting moments, under the ever-present unflinching granite gaze of the Longstone.
A cultivated field, an ancient monolith, and a transitory human observer. This film is a record of their brief interaction. There are no interviews or ecology experts in this film. In fact, there are no human beings at all; instead, an unassuming Cornish field near Land’s End takes center stage, and a crop of spring barley forms the center of an unfolding, compelling and beautiful narrative.
As the wheel of the year turns, Morris’s ecosophical polemic unearths a mythic reality buried just below the furrowed soil of our consumerist age, suggesting, perhaps, that whilst time may feel like it’s running away at an ever-increasing rate, it’s not too late to pause, reflect, and change.
Following the film’s premiere screening, the director will join us (live from Cornwall, via satellite) for a sure-to-be fascinating Q&A with author and musician Will Sheff (of Okkervil River, and of Cornish heritage).
Join us for this very special event and an evening of hushed and beautiful meditation. Join us for A YEAR IN A FIELD.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Christopher Morris is a documentary filmmaker and broadcaster. Morris worked for the BBC in London and Cardiff (1989-2003) as a documentary director, factual producer and executive producer. His career in radio and television encompasses drama and commercials but primarily documentary. Recurring themes include the changing nature of childhood, faith and social justice, often working with marginalised communities.
Since leaving the BBC in 2003, he has been working as an academic, freelance documentary maker and story consultant for feature documentaries. Morris worked as an academic at Newport Film School (2003-2015) setting up and ran the first three-year BA documentary film course in the UK. He was director of Newport Film School (2009-2011) and was awarded a chair as Professor of Documentary Film Practice (2011).
Morris was director of the School of Film & Television at Falmouth University, Cornwall (2015-2020) Since 2020 he has returned full time to making films. In 2021, Morris wrote and directed KESTAV, a short science fiction drama featuring a Cornish speaking alien and he’s also been standing in a Cornish field for a year making ‘A Year In A Field’, his first feature length documentary; a personal response to our changing climate.
Awards include: a BAFTA and two BAFTA Cymru Awards, a Royal Television Society Award, five Torcs at the Celtic Media Festival, The Premios Ondas (Spain), a Special Jury Award at Le Prix Jeunesse and prizes at the Berlin Film Festival and Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
ABOUT WILL SHEFF
Will Sheff is the lead singer and songwriter for the band Okkervil River. His non-musical writing has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone and McSweeney’s. His debut album under his own name, Nothing Special, was released in 2022. He lives in Los Angeles.
A Year in a Field
A Year in a Field
UK, 2023, digital, color, sound, 86 minutes
Christopher Morris films a field near his home in Cornwall every day from the Winter Solstice 2020 to the Winter Solstice 2021.
From Winter Solstice 2020 to Winter Solstice 2021, a string of unprecedented worldwide climate disasters, met by weak global political resolve, are revealed as just fleeting moments, under the ever-present unflinching granite gaze of the Longstone.
There are no interviews or experts in this film. In fact, there are no human beings at all; instead, an unassuming Cornish field near Land’s End takes center stage, and a crop of spring barley forms the center of an unfolding, compelling and beautiful narrative.
The field is extraordinary in one respect - at its center is the Longstone, a 4000-year-old standing stone, carved, and thrust into the soil at a time when humans first began on an industrial scale to adversely affect the planet. This pillar of granite has stood silent sentinel to everything we have done and continue to do to our planet. The ominous stone figure forms the central protagonist in this sublimely unique film – it points to where we have come from and perhaps where we are headed.
A cultivated field, an ancient monolith, and a transitory human observer. This film is a record of their brief interaction.
“As I got closer and closer to the field, my view grew wider and wider, until finally, looking at the same small field, I began to see the universe.”