Research Cafe: We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher - Screening & Discussion

QUAD is hosting a screening and discussion about the cultural theorist Mark Fisher on Thursday 26 November, part of the Research Cafe series. The film, We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher, was made by Sophie Mellor and Simon Poulter, working as Close and Remote. It's a bit of a story in itself: they spent two years, from 2024 to 2026, pulling it together with no budget, no studio backing, and no institutional permissions, bringing in 70 collaborators along the way.

It opens in Fisher's home town of Felixstowe in Suffolk and starts with him talking about 'Capitalist Realism', the concept he's best known for. Mellor and Poulter are clear that this isn't a biography and they steer clear of nostalgia; instead, they weigh Fisher's main ideas against large-scale protest footage they shot between 2011 and 2025. There's a ghost story in there too: one early scene lands on a beach with Professor Parkins, a character from M. R. James's 1904 tale Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad, a story Fisher cited several times.

The night is more than just the screening. Dr Andrew Fergus Wilson from the University of Derby opens with an introduction (about 20 minutes), and once the film is over, there's a post-film discussion that runs for another 30. It's set up as a full evening around Fisher's life and work, rather than just a one-off showing.

It starts at 6:00pm at QUAD, and tickets are £6 for standard and £6 for concession.