bigideas

The next Big Ideas event will be on 4 September in the same place as last time: the upstairs room of the Wheatsheaf pub in Fitzrovia. Put it in your diary this instant.

Is Film Studies is just an easy option for not-very-bright kids who want to go to university? Is it, as Dr Sir Alan Sugar claimed, a waste of good brains? Or is studying film a worthwhile activity?

Danny Birchall of the Institute of Contemporary Arts and columnist for Sight and Sound will be asking the question: What’s the point of Film Studies?

In the process we’ll probably wonder why it’s worth studying the arts at all, and whether the goal of Film Studies is a better understanding of a film, of ourselves, of our society or something else entirely.

Whether you’re a science graduate who thinks the Humanities department is a waste of taxpayers’ money or an avid exponent of semiotics, the subject should the thought-provoking and lead to a lively exchange of ideas.

As usual, anyone is welcome to turn up and bring like-minded friends. As usual, no prior knowledge is required, just an equiring mind and your drinking arm.