Friday 7 November 2008, 19.00

Screen, one of the leading international journals in the study of film and television, has been engaging in debates about film culture for fifty years. To celebrate the anniversary, this special event features a rare screening of Sigmund Freud's Dora: A Case of Mistaken Identity, followed by a discussion with Alison Butler, John Caughie, Isaac Julien, Annette Kuhn, Mark Nash and Claire Pajaczkowska.

In the 1970s and into the 1980s, Screen, along with its well-known interventions in film theory, presented an ongoing dialogue with practicing filmmakers from both the visual art avant-garde and the radical wing of the then embryonic independent filmmaking sector.

This discourse between the worlds of art and film involved debates with the group around Block, including the art historian TJ Clark, and with artists such as Mary Kelly. The engagement with practice appeared in the journal in work on, for example Peter Wollen & Laura Mulvey, Peter Gidal, Sally Potter, and Cinema Action, but it also included conferences and a number of weekend schools. Practicing filmmakers like Martine Attille and Isaac Julien became members of the Screen editorial board, and Screen board members were active in the Independent Filmmakers' Association.

Sigmund Freud's Dora: A Case of Mistaken Identity (USA 1979, 40 mins) was directed by Anthony McCall, Claire Pajaczkowska, Andrew Tyndall, and Jane Weinstock. Using inserts of television ads and pornographic films to interrogate woman's status as the object of desire, it sets up a complex relationship between image, sound and text. Female lips in close-up recount a conversation concerning psychoanalysis, as we see a series of dates and events for 1882 to 1905, from the birth of Dora to the publication of Freud's case history of her. Four dialogues between Freud and Dora follow.

This event is intended to re-establish some of Screen's original connections, with a debate about current and future directions both in the theory and practice of moving image work. The discussion will consider the lines of communication between film/video theory, film/video practice and art/gallery practice.

Alison Butler is Lecturer in Film at University of Reading

John Caughie is Professor of Film & Television Studies at the University of Glasgow and a member of the editorial group of Screen

Isaac Julien is an internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker based in London.

Annette Kuhn is Professor of Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London and a member of the editorial group of Screen

Mark Nash is Professor and Head of the Department of Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London, and a former editor of Screen (1978-81)

Claire Pajaczkowska is the Senior Research Tutor in Fashion and Textiles at the Royal College of Art.

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£7 (£5 concessions), booking recommended
This event will be followed by a drinks reception sponsored by Screen.