Last week, I visited London for the first time since 2019. I was there for a few days because my video A Performance of Valour screened at the London Short Film Festival.

A few highlights I’d like to share with you:

My video screeing at the ICA. After seeing so many films there, it was a special feeling to sit and see my work on the big screen, and extra smiles when it got cheers and applause. Thankful to Alex, Ian, Ali, Adrian for attending and extra thanks to Alex for creating a page for my video on Letterboxd.
It was also great to see Hammad Nasar there, a curator I worked with in the past and one of the first people I talked to about the origins of my video. Didn’t take any photos from that afternoon, but will always remember that day.

Crossing the Thames and looking at the London skyline reminded me of many great nights at the London Film Festival.

Beep for Freedom protest signs on Trafalgar Sq and hearing cars and buses beeping as they drove by.

Billboard on Piccadilly Circus showing an ad for the new Atlantis hotel in Dubai placed next to Disney’s Chippendale TV show on Piccadilly Circus.

Robotic vacuum cleaner in my hotel.

An old couple in Waterloo Millennium Green Park talking to me when I was photographing birds sitting on a tree. They asked if I knew the film Psycho and told me they call the birds sitting on the trees Sinister Pigeons. I told them it’s a good name for a band.

I didn’t have time to visit any museums or big exhibitions, but I did pass by Firth Street Gallery to see a friend and see its latest exhibition, Field Recordings by Bridget Smith. The tintypes are so beautiful and I also got to see one of her older works hanging in the back offices, a cyanotype print of cinema seats.
Images below are from https://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/31-bridget-smith/.

Bridget Smith
*Silver Moons I*, 2022
Tintypes
20.32 x 25.4 cm / 8 x 10 in each (unframed)
35 x 100 x 4 cm / 13 3/4 x 39 3/8 x 1 5/8 in (framed)

Bridget Smith
*Blueprint for a Sea (infinity)*, 2015
Cyanotype print on aluminium
110 x 230 cm / 43.3 x 90.6 in

Seeing Jean Luc Godard’s KING LEAR on 35mm at Cine Lumiere.

Seeing In the Mood For Love in a cinema for the first time, after only seeing it at home in the early 2000s. The restored version was screened at Prince Charles Cinema - and I noticed there was more green in it than I remembered. Turns out it’s part of the restoration. I’m sad about this because I don’t think it was necessary. Now I hope I can see the film on its original 35mm if that print still exits and in circulation.

Spending the night at Prince Charles Cinema for Michael Mann’s Mannathon, 5 films screening from 10pm till 9.45am. Manntastic.

I didn’t get to contact or see all my friends in London, but hope to be back again soon and reconnecting with them.

A Short Trip to London