The Brighton Film Festival

University of Brighton Gallery
Saturday 22 November – Friday 19 December 2014

A man called Berg, who changed his name to Greb, came to a seaside town intending to kill his father …

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ann Quin’s debut novel, CINECITY and artist/production designer Anna Deamer presented a film set installation for an imaginary screen version of Berg. The immersive, cinematic environment was complemented by a soundtrack  from renowned musician and composer Barry Adamson.

A boarding house in out of season Brighton is the background for this strange, disturbing and darkly comic drama. Published in 1964, Berg established Ann Quin’s reputation as one of the most original British writers. She wrote a further three, increasingly experimental novels but remains one of the best-kept secrets of British literature. She died in 1973, drowning in the sea off Brighton, aged 37.

The film set was devised, designed and built over two years by Anna Deamer in an ambitious partnership between artists, industry and education. Over 300 students from City College and the University of Brighton worked in an art department guided by industry professionals, building life-size walk-through sets of the novel’s key settings before set dressing, lighting, sound design and original score created the final installation. It was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Crossing fine art and cinema practices, Berg developed the distinctive approach first seen in Hangover Square (2012); a film set based on a novel that was neither filmed in nor featuring actors ‘in character’, and through meticulous design and detailing, allowed an audience to be within both the novel and imagined film simultaneously.