44:16
Abandoned Goods Film Screening with talk by Prof. Clair Wills | Ballinasloe Library
Ballinasloe Library, Society St, Ballinasloe
Friday 17 November 2023
2.30pm - 4.30pm
J.J. Beegan was an artist and sculptor who made drawings repeatedly naming himself, his profession and Ballinasloe, as a long stay patient at Netherne Mental Health Hospital, in East Surrey, England, where he made drawings recalling home.
Screened in Ballinasloe for the first time, Abandoned Goods is a short film that explores the many artists making work in Netherne, including artist and sculptor J.J. Beegan, through archival and 35mm footage. Following the screening there will be a talk by Professor Clair Wills, who will discuss her process of searching for Beegan, and crucially about what happens when we can’t trace people, what then does the evidence amount to.
01:01
Abandoned Goods, 2014
Length: 37 mins
Abandoned Goods screened as part of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais. An essay film exploring the journey of one of Britain’s major collections of 'asylum art' containing about 5,500 objects (paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures and works on stone, flint and bone) created between 1946 and 1981, by about 140 people compelled to live in the Netherne psychiatric hospital in South London.
Abandoned Goods was awarded the Golden Pardino for the Best International Short Film in the Leopards of Tomorrow Competition at Locarno Film Festival. To date it has also screened at the Hamptons, London BFI Film Festival, Sundance, True/False, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Oberhausen, Festival Internacional de Cine De Huesca, Janela Internacional de Cinema Festival, Bucharest Experimental Film Festival, First Fortnight Film Festival, DocAviv, San Francisco Documentary Film Festival and Busan International Short Film Festival.
Edward Lawrenson is a Scottish filmmaker and writer based in London. His films have played at a number of festivals, including Sundance, BFI London Film Festival, Cinéma du réel, True/False, Open City; and cinemas, including the Museum of the Moving Image in New York and London’s ICA.
Pia Borg is a Maltese/Australian filmmaker. Her non-fiction films that chronicle historical events and psychological phenomena have received numerous prizes, including the Golden Leopard at Locarno Festival for Abandoned Goods (2014) which she co-directed with Ed Lawrenson.
Abandoned Goods was made with the help of Dr David O'Flynn and the Adamson Collection Trust and the support of the Wellcome Trust and the Maudsley Charity.
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise
Curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
3 - 19 November 2023
Galway, Ireland
Access: A step-free venue, assessed via a lift. Accessible toilet facilities available, and two accessible parking spaces at the back of the library. The film is captioned. Seating is provided.
Video edit: Jonathan Sammon