Kayla Parker introduced the screening of Patrick Keiller’s third film featuring the itinerant scholar Robinson, for Peninsula Arts, at Jill Craigie Cinema, Plymouth University in 2011:
“In conversation at Watershed in Bristol earlier this year, Patrick Keiller described how he set out with a camera to find answers to some questions about moving image and the history of settlement in the British landscape. That expedition became the film you’re about to see: an investigation into notions of dwelling, of belonging to the landscape, and an exploration of land ownership in Britain.”
Keiller says he wanted to find out why people are so interested in looking at landscape, and asks: Why do people love looking at a beautiful view? And, to whom does the land belong? The film starts with the conceit that Robinson’s exposed rolls of film were found in an ancient caravan in the countryside. Keiller was thinking of shooting on digital but someone told him he’d become be responsible for the digital data in perpetuity as part of his contractual obligations.
Paolo Cherchi Usai said cinema is self-destructive as projection eventually wears out film prints. He hadn’t tried to resurrect films on old video tape or audio on DAT!