London-based filmmaker/artist Steven Eastwood talks about:
His East London neighborhood of Hackney, where he's been for 15+ years, and the evolution it's gone through from dodgy to hipster haven; the divisiveness not only between London and the rest of the U.K., but also between generations, as in Steven and his father, with whom his values vastly diverge, who voted for Brexit and perceives London as intimidating and full of cultural elites, and ultimately wants the country to go back to the way it was; his productive time in the U.S. teaching film at SUNY Buffalo from 2004-07, after a 48-hour interview process (in the U.K. you're in and out the door in 45 minutes, he said); his evolution as a teacher, which is lead him to something of a dream teaching job currently, with a research post that allows him to spend a lot of time on his films; the complexities around distribution of art-based films – when and where to release and in what addition - which still hasn't been figured out; how his ongoing state in making films is to feel alien, how feels like a stranger to himself when he's making them; his film Island, which will begin as a multi-channel art gallery installation before its release in late 2017/early '18 as a feature film, and is about the end of life (literally); all of the complex logistics with legal as well as emotional contracts and the navigation of ethics that allowed him to be a first-hand witness on more than one occasion; how art has always had a relationship with death, but it's been somewhat taboo dealing with it through film; and finally a story about a harrowing night on a Scottish isle that he and former guest Kysa Johnson shared.