Screening of Harold Johnson's home movies, introduced by his grandson Alan Johnson and accompanied by pianist Morgan Cooke, as part of the Belfast Film Festival.
The Black Box is screening The Wonderfully Interesting, Exciting And Dangerous World Of Harold Johnson on Thursday 29 October, as part of the Belfast Film Festival programme. It's not a single film in the usual sense, but a series of short films from the collection of Harold Johnson, who lived from 1910 to 1967. The evening is introduced by his grandson, Alan Johnson, and Sunniva O'Flynn from the IFI Irish Film Archive, with the silent films accompanied by pianist Morgan Cooke.
Johnson was a skilled amateur filmmaker, a Quaker and a businessman, heir to the Johnson Brothers business founded in Belfast in 1893. His family deposited his collection — more than 150 films, around 30 hours in total — at the IFI Irish Film Archive for preservation. Shot between the 1930s and the 1960s on 8mm and 16mm, the footage records family holidays, workers at the Irel Coffee Factory, mountain climbing, water skiing, motor sport, trips to Africa and the Holy Land, and Quaker gatherings in Dublin, Newtown School, Waterford and elsewhere. The editing is often playful, and the screening brings together a selection from that archive.
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It's a glimpse into a particular Belfast life and the world around it over four decades, from the factory floor to the Holy Land. The silent parts of the programme will have live piano accompaniment from Morgan Cooke, and the whole thing is presented as part of the Belfast Film Festival. The screening is for ages 18 and over, and it starts at 7:00pm at The Black Box; tickets are pay what you want, from £6.
