At the Volta with James Joyce

10 December 2010 – The Glasgow Film Theatre – 8.30pm

For a few weeks at the end of 1909 James Joyce, future author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, ran a cinema. The Volta was one of the first cinemas in Dublin  and, remarkably, a number of the films that Joyce selected and screened there still survive. This special programme organized by the Scottish Network of Modernist Studies as part of its 1910 Centenary Conference, brings together a number of these rare short films from the collection of the British Film Institute, including How Cretinetti Pays his Debts, Aviation Week at Rheims, A Glass of Goat's Milk and  The Way of the Cross. The films will be presented at the Glasgow Film Theatre by film historian Luke McKernan and the showing will be followed by a public discussion led by John McCourt of the University of Rome. At the Volta with James Joyce demonstrates not only how varied, entertaining and experimental the early cinema programme was, but how its themes and styles influenced Joyce the writer. The films will be presented with live musical accompaniment.

Tickets for this event will be available to the general public through the box office of the GFT. However, delegates to the 1910 Centenary Conference may purchase tickets at a discounted rate of £3 through the registration form here.

(Images courtesy British Film Institute and Irish Film Institute)