Late-night film festival at Wellcome Collection

4 January 2008

Explore Wellcome Collection by night and enjoy a captivating selection of films inspired by 'Sleeping & Dreaming'.

In support of the critically acclaimed temporary exhibition 'Sleeping & Dreaming', Wellcome Collection announces its first late-night film festival. From American indie to German expressionism, the programme also includes surreal shorts and unusual footage from the Wellcome Library's film archive.

All titles have been selected to enable the audience to consider sleeping and dreaming in new and unusual ways. The unique setting of this film festival, surrounded by the objects in the Wellcome Collection galleries, will provide a fresh context to the films.

Feature films

'My Own Private Idaho' (Gus Van Sant, 1991) cert. 15/UK/102 min
River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in Van Sant's beautiful and haunting road movie, which follows two teenage street hustlers on a journey of self-discovery.

'Abre los Ojos' (Open Your Eyes) (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997) cert. 15/Spain/117 min
Stunning psychological thriller and love story starring Penelope Cruz and Eduardo Noriega that inspired the Hollywood remake 'Vanilla Sky'.

'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' (Robert Wiene, 1920) cert. U/Germany/71 min
The sinister Dr Caligari arrives in the quiet village of Holstenwall with Cesaré, a somnambulist who has been asleep for 23 years. This is the ultimate German expressionist classic.

Short films

The rolling programme of shorts will include:

'Fish Never Sleep' (Gaëlle Denis, 2002) UK/6 min
Gaëlle Denis's beautiful BAFTA-winning animation in which Naoko, a complete insomniac, discovers why fish never sleep.

'The Comb' (The Quay Brothers, 1990) UK/17 min
This mesmerising film by the Quay Brothers opens in the shadowy bedroom of a sleeping woman, where a strange explorer enters her dreams.

'The Mill' (Petra Freeman, 1992) UK/8 min
A young girl is picked up by a swarm of bees and taken inside a hive, where she discovers a world of wonder and mystery.

The films will be accompanied by a series of live readings, in the Peyton and Byrne café, of sleep- and dream-related poetry and literary passages, which aim to captivate audiences and provide an alternative insight into the themes of the exhibition. The screening of 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' will be accompanied by a live score.

"Our film festival continues the series of all building-spectacle events that we host at Wellcome Collection," explains Lisa Jamieson, Events Manager at the Wellcome Trust. "Visitors will find the atmosphere relaxed and informal yet thought provoking and engaging. The ideas explored in the 'Sleeping & Dreaming' exhibition have inspired scriptwriters, producers and directors to create dramatic films and we hope this innovative film festival at Wellcome Collection will enable the public to revisit some of these."

In addition to the film programme, Wellcome Collection's three exhibition galleries, café and bookshop in will be open for the duration of the event.

Since opening to the public in June 2007, Wellcome Collection has attracted over 130 000 visitors. Its 32 events have attracted over 2000 people. A world first, Wellcome Collection explores the relationship between medicine, life and art, combining the three contemporary galleries with the Wellcome Library, Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, public events forum, café, bookshop and members' club to provide visitors with a radical insight into the human condition.

Wellcome Collection's second major temporary exhibition, 'Sleeping & Dreaming', opened in November 2007 as a groundbreaking exploration of the state we inhabit for a third of our lives. 'Sleeping & Dreaming' is the result of a major partnership between Wellcome Collection and The Museum of Man (Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany), and is open and free to the public until 9 March 2008.

Media enquiries

Mike Findlay, Wellcome Trust Media Office
T +44 (0)20 7611 8612
E m.findlay@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes to editors

Future event for film lovers - Catherine Yass: Artist in Conversation
British artist and Turner prize nominee Catherine Yass will premiere her new film work at Wellcome Collection on 7 February. Her film documents her waking moments and dream recall. Catherine will be in conversation with LUX gallery curator Lucy Reynolds and will discuss her interests in sleeping and dreaming.

Films in Wellcome Collection
The exhibitions in Wellcome Collection contain 24 films, including: 'Origin' in the 'Medicine Now' gallery, a Daniel Lee video of the re-imaging of human evolution through ten stages, from coelacanth-like fish to modern humans; 'The Phantom Museum Random Forays into Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection' in the 'Medicine Man' gallery, a film that journeys through Henry Wellcome's collection at Blythe House and brings objects to life, by The Quay Brothers; and 'The man who never slept', an excerpt from a film on sleep disorders featuring Michael Corke, who died from fatal familial insomnia in 1993.

Wellcome Library digital films
Over 400 films, equating to 100 hours of moving image material from the Wellcome Library's historical collection of medical films, will be digitised and made freely available over the web over the next two years. The project is the result of partnership between Wellcome Library and JISC Collections.

Wellcome Trust and Wellcome Collection
The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.

The Wellcome Trust's former headquarters, the Wellcome Building on London's Euston Road, has been redesigned by Hopkins Architects to become a new £30 million public venue. Free to all, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. The building comprises three galleries, a public events space, the Wellcome Library, a café, a bookshop, conference facilities and a members' club.