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Jude Kelly - Southbank Centre artistic director - was in the audience at the Barbican for the premiere of What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day in October 2005. She asked Paul Kelly, Andrew Hinton, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs to be artists in residence for the year leading up to the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall in 2007. They agreed, and began work on their biggest project to date, This Is Tomorrow. Covering the history of London's cultural centre from the Festival Of Britain to the present day, the 90-minute film links the optimism and primary colours of its opening in 1951 to its renovation and rebirth as Britain's most inspiring building in 2007. While the Festival Hall was shut, the group ran a monthly film and music night called Turntable Cafe in the neighbouring Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall: the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Welsh folk, self-build architecture and Paris in the Spring were among the chosen themes. This Is Tomorrow premiered, with a soundtrack played live by the band and a 60-piece orchestra of local school musicians, at the Royal Festival Hall on June 29th, 2007. The film is a journey into the past and the future of an internationally renowned and much loved architectural space and its epic refurbishment. The film features interviews with people who have made major contributions to the site and its architecture, including designer Robin Day, architects Trevor Dannatt and Jim Cadbury-Brown, Southbank Centre's current artistic director Jude Kelly, artist Jeremy Deller, as well as builders, manufacturers, recent artists, local residents and Southbank Centre staff. A special website, www.thisistomorrow.co.uk, was created for the film but is no longer active. Press was done by Emma Pettit. The film was included in Saint Etienne's A London Trilogy - The Films Of Saint Etienne 2003-2007 DVD which was released on Jul 15, 2013. |
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