In the Eye of the Storm: the films of Kathryn Bigelow

This talk by Malgjorzata Bugaj discusses the works of Kathryn Bigelow and focuses on her latest film, Detroit. It is produced in co-operation with Berwick Film Society, and is part of our Summer Film Series. Tickets for the full series are available here and are free to anyone who was a member of BFS for its 2019/20 season.

Detroit is available to rent on Google Play and Amazon Prime.

Known for Point Break (1991) with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, Oscar winner The Hurt Locker (2008) and the controversial Zero Dark Thirty (2012) starring Jessica Chastain, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director as well as the prestigious Directors Guild of America Award. Her original training as a painter is reflected in her richly kinetic and visually intense cinematic style.

Detroit, set during the 1967 Detroit riots and released on their 50th anniversary, feels disturbingly relevant today. The film depicting the violence of white police officers against black residents of the city, blends archival documentary footage with the director’s own gut-wrenching dramatization of the events.

“She achieves this sense of immersion primarily through her use of sound editing and placement of the camera – quite often employing mobile shots in amongst the action to visceral effect. Her use of multiple cameras to cover action in real-time with The Hurt Locker (a technique she further explores in Zero Dark Thirty) also gives her action a palpable sense of immediacy and realism sorely lacking in many recent movies of the genre.” (Gregory Moss)

“Crucially, despite the efficiently evoked period setting (plaudits to production designer Jeremy Hindle) there’s nothing distant about Detroit. As a broad-canvas work that shifts from social realism to courtroom drama via crime thriller, musical fantasy and social chiller, it confirms Bigelow as a dextrous master of her craft. As a wake-up call to a nation, it is tense, tough and terrifyingly timely.” (Mark Kermode for The Guardian, 2017)

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom. If you haven’t used Zoom before, please go to www.zoom.us and look at the tutorials. An invitation will be emailed to you.

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