We are pleased to welcome director Seamus Harahan for a Q&A following the screening, chaired by Chris Paul Daniels, Lecturer, BA Filmmaking at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Seamus Harahan’s video, installation, film and sound based practice engages directly with place. His starting point is not the making of art; instead his strategy is to forget and just film the social and cultural environment around him. Harahan uses his video camera – a relatively accessible and moderately affordable technology – to take hand-held, seemingly amateur footage, the contents of this footage, locating himself and locating others, through found activity occurring around him. The main subject is often the urban environment, its incidental detail and fugitive nature. Music is a vital element in all of Harahan’s works, with songs used as soundtracks or informing the composition, title or duration of individual pieces. The artist takes songs from an eclectic range of sources, including reggae and hip hop as well as English and Irish traditional music.