Ruth Mulandi AUTUMN 2026
General Description
A range of short courses and one-off sessions covering film studies, filmand art history, including themes related to current exhibitions and events.Expect clips, deep dives, and lively discussions to bring each one to life.
Notes
All classes are interactive, organised around watching clips/looking at art works withguided discussions and background provided; after each session participants receivefurther information, viewing, reading and listening material
To Book
Please use the Contact Form at the bottom of this listign to contact Ruth and express interest in any of these courses. Please include the title of the course you are interested in joining in the commetns field.
PRIMER: THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY
Course Description.
The truly historic occasion of its visit to Britain means the Bayeux Tapestry is in thenews.
This session serves either as a preparation for, or an alternative to viewing it while it is ondisplay at the British Museum, giving you the tools to ‘read between the stitches’ andappreciate its artistry and historical significance.
The tapestry is a truly singular work, as a chronicle of events that reshaped Britain inunique form, a highly unusual piece of textile art, and an early example of visual storytelling(and precursor to 20thcentury forms like the comic and graphic novel!).
Drawing on materials by the British and Bayeux Museums, latest research andpublications, this session provides you with an introduction to the tapestry’s historic,cultural and artistic background, 11th-century politics and craftsmanship, equippingto you to read its narrative, symbolism and political messages and to appreciate itsartistry.
Date: MON, 14 Sep
Time: 4-6pm
Cost:£12 (1 day)
ITALIAN CINEMA
Course Description
This 5-week course provides an overview of Italian cinema, tracing its history from thesilent era to the turn of the 21stcentury.
We will cover not only neorealism, one of world cinema’s most influential movements,Italy’s cinematic masters of the 1950s and 1960s like Fellini and Antonioni and the politicalcinema of the 1970s (boundary-breaking both in style and content), but the history ofpopular Italian genre cinema likecommedia all’italiana,SpaghettiWesterns andgiallothrillers.
We’ll include landmark films likeThe Conformistand directors like Pasolini, meet some ofItaly’s biggest stars (some for the first time) and look at a selection of recent film-makersand works to round up this introduction to one of Europe’s leading film-making nations.
Dates: 16 Sep – 14 Oct(5 weeks)
WED, 7.30-9.30pm
Day and time:
Cost: £62.50
AFRICAN CINEMA Part 1
Course Description
This 2-day course offers an introduction to African cinema, tracing its trajectory from thegolden age of 1930s Egyptian cinema when Cairo served as the Hollywood of the MiddleEast and Africa to the emergence of sub-Saharan cinema during the era of independence.
We will look at its ‘founding fathers’ Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Med Hondo,and other key directors and their works from the 1970s and 1980s; and we’ll explore howthey used film-making as a political act and tool of liberation, to challenge colonial legacies,retell African histories from an African perspective and develop unique visual andstorytelling styles, based on African traditions.
Part 2 will follow in early 2027 tracing African cinema’s development into the 21stcentury,including the emergence of Nollywood, African film’s spread across the continent and thegrowing significance of the diaspora.
Dates: : 17 & 24 Oct (2 weeks)
Day and time: Saturday 2pm–5pm
Cost: £36
DAVID HOCKNEY: A First Look Retrospective
Course Description
In light of David Hockney’s passing this June, this one-off session offers an opportunity tolook back at his extraordinary career and legacy.
Hockney was one of the most influential and celebrated British artists of the 20thand 21stcenturies, emerging as a leading figure of Pop Art in the 1960s and thereafter developinghis work to transcend any single style in a continual exploration of colour, perspective, andperception whilst representing one of the leading figurative artists of our time.
Through key works, we’ll explore the hyper-realism of his iconic swimming pool series andportraits; his boundary-blurring photographic work; his embracing of video and digital art;his in-depth study of perspective in European art; and his innovative use of techniques andtechnologies to continually develop his work.
In the process we’ll examine his role in challenging social norms through his earlydepictions of queer identity and in the evolution of contemporary art through his refusal tobe pigeonholed into a single movement.
Date: 21 October.
Day and Time: Wednesday 4-6pm
Cost: £12 (1 day)
IRISH CINEMA
Course Description
Discover the rich and often rebellious world of Irish film in this 5-week course that offers anintroductory overview of Irish cinema, exploring how Ireland’s cultural identity has beencaptured on screen both within its own borders and by the Irish diaspora.
We will trace the evolution of Irish cinema from early silent experiments to the modern”Celtic Tiger” era and beyond, examining landmark films, the directors behind them andkey genres that have defined the national cinema, from rural dramas to social comediesand urban thrillers.
We’ll explore how Irish film draws on Irish cultural and artistic traditions; how it hasresponded to Ireland’s tumultuous history during the 20thcentury in films fromMichaelCollinstoIn the Name of the Father;and the ‘Irishness’ of films made abroad.
Film-makers we’ll look at include Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan and Martin McDonagh whoseexplorations of conflict, faith, and identity have resonated with international audiences.
Dates: 28 October – 25 November (5 weeks)
Day and time: WED, 7.30-9.30pm
Cost: £62.50
ART HISTORY: British Art from the 1930s–1950s
Course Description.
This course explores the evolution of British art during a period of social upheaval, war andprofound artistic experimentation. Looking at key movements, artists and works, we’lluncover the cultural, political, and philosophical forces that redefined what art could be inBritain:
From theBloomsbury Group, whose commitment to emotional honesty an intellectualismchallenged Victorian constraints; toBritish surrealismandradical collectiveLondonGroup,a hub for modernist experimentation, including abstraction and expressionism; toNeo-Romanticism in the 1940sand its return to landscape painting during the Blitz; andfinally theLondon Schooland the raw, psychologically charged works of painters likeFrancis Bacon and Lucian Freud, mirroring the anxiety and alienation of the mid-century.
Artists we’ll look at include Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Paul Nash, Roger Penrose,Leonora Carrington, Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kosoff.
Dates: 1 to 15 December (3 weeks)
Day and Time: tuesdays 7 – 9pm
Cost: £36
To Book with Ruth
Please use the Contact Form below to contact Ruth and express interest in any of these courses. Please include the title of the course you are interested in joining in the commetns field.