STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
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Utopia undone
Christopher Ian Smith's powerful documentary charts the rise and fall of the visionary project that was Basildon new town, says MARIA DUARTE
New town
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STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
New Town Utopia (15)
Directed by Christopher Ian Smith
★★★
THIS visually arresting portrait of Basildon New Town and the hopes it spawned on becoming a beacon for a social and classless utopia make for a thought-provoking documentary.
Director Christopher Ian Smith shows you the Essex town as you have never seen it before through its bleak and striking architecture and its colourful and eye-catching sculptures and murals.
The words and works of local artists, musicians and poets are interwoven throughout and shed a fascinating light on life in this former new town, its slow demise and the demonising of its working-class inhabitants.
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