04/09/2026
Cinema studies but apparently the classroom is all of England 🎞️ From Oxford to two London field trips. The Cosmic House, Isaac Julien’s All That Changes You: Metamorphosis, Turner and Zineb Sedira at Tate Britain, and of course the BFI. One of my favorite stops was The Cosmic House, where we saw Isaac Julien’s All That Changes You: Metamorphosis. The house and the work felt like such a perfect match. It was less like watching a film inside a house, and more like the whole house had become part of the experience. At Tate Britain, I got to see Turner’s work again, which was honestly way more dramatic in real life than seeing his work on a screen. I also loved Zineb Sedira’s When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks. The title alone basically sums up so much of what I love about studying film. The exhibition brought together cinema, memory, politics, archives, and history in a way that made film feel like something that can actually preserve and speak for the past. And of course, the BFI had to make the cut. One of my favorite moments there was finding a 1959 Chinese documentary, China Today No. 23, in the Mediatheque. Sitting in London and suddenly watching ordinary scenes from my grandparents’ generation felt strangely personal. It was a past I never experienced myself, but the small details in the film somehow made it feel more imaginable. I think this was probably my favorite way to study film.
- Scarlett, Oxford 🇬🇧
