RIGA IFF CRITICS MEETING is a meet-up and discussion platform for practicing Latvian film critics as well as students and enthusiasts. In 2017, in collaboration with Creative Europe Desk Latvia, MEDIA Office and British Council in Latvia the MEETING has invited the prominent British film critic and reviewer Neil Young for two talks – one targeted at professional film critics and those interested in the craft and one for educators that covers topics of audiovisual literacy in the age of “fake news”.

NEIL YOUNG

Neil Young is a film-critic and curator/programmer. His reviews and festival reports appear regularly in The Hollywood Reporter, Sight & Sound, Tribune (London), MUBI Notebook and other international outlets. Formerly director of the Bradford International Film Festival (2011-15), he works as a consultant advising several European film-festivals.

SUPPORT:

TEN FILM CRITICS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD

WED SEP 13 16:00 – 19:00 CAFE FILM NOIR

Ten individuals from various epochs and nationalities are profiled as a way to show the crucial importance of film criticism both in terms of the progression of the cinematic art-form and also as an honorable, vital and stimulating craft in its own right.

After the lecture Neil Young will participate in a round-table discussion about the topics raised in the talk and his own personal experiences. He will address practical and theoretical aspects of working as a film critic nowadays.

Free admission, no registration required.

BERGALA AND BEYOND: FILM IN THE CLASSROOM

THU SEP 14 14:00 – 15:30 CAFE FILM NOIR

In an age when young people in Latvia and elsewhere in the world are bombarded as never before by visual information, much of it biased or even propagandistic in nature, visual literacy has never been more crucial. Capacity of reading film and other audiovisual images is a crucial, yet underestimated skill of the current century. Being also a platform of idea exchange, RIGA IFF in partnership with British Council in Latvia is organising a workshop for teachers and other educational professionals, in order to provide them with necessary tools that would allow transmitting the knowledge of this skill to their students. The workshop will be lead by the seasoned film critic and theorist Neil Young. Young will take as his guide the book “The Cinema Hypothesis” of the French essayist and filmmaker Alain Bergala. This important text on film-education among children is used as a launching-off point for a wider discussion of the subject.

If you wish to attend the workshop, register please apply, by sending an email to kristine@rigaiff.lv by 13th of September. Registering is mandatory, as we have to provide you with materials necessary for the workshop beforehand.