Baltic Cinema: Chronicle of a Summer + Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor?

Chronicle of a Summer + Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor? (12)
Sat Mar 6 2027 | 15:00
£6/£4.50* per person
 

Echoing Kuba Ryniewicz’s videos Good News (2026) these two films ask strangers who they are and how they feel. A rare screening of Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin’s trailblazing study of the hopes and fears of a generation is paired with artist Barbara Hammer’s gonzo New York subway film.

Chronicle of a Summer
Chronique d’un Été
Dirs. Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin France 1960 90mins

Few films can claim as much influence on the course of cinema history as Chronicle of a Summer. The fascinating result of a collaboration between filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin, this vanguard work of what Morin termed cinéma vérité is a brilliantly conceived and realised diagnosis of the early sixties in France — but surprisingly feels as fresh as when it was made, finding much in common with contemporary life in the UK.

Simply by interviewing a group of Paris residents in the summer of 1960 – beginning with the provocative and eternal question “Are you happy?” and expanding to political issues, including the ongoing Algerian War – Rouch and Morin reveal the hopes and dreams of a wide array of people, from artists to factory workers, from an Italian émigré to an African student. Chronicle of a Summer’s incisive approach gives us a document of a time and place with extraordinary emotional depth. (Criterion)
 

Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor? A New York Subway Tape

Dir. Barbara Hammer USA 1985 12mins 39secs

Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor? A New York City Subway Tape finds iconic American artist Barbara Hammer (wearing a mask made of subway maps) conducting gonzo interviews with subway riders, getting their thoughts on the city, their fellow passengers, and navigating public space.

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Doors open 14:30; Film starts 15:00. Drinks are available from Baltic Kitchen and may be taken into the auditorium.

Please note we cannot offer refunds on this event.
*Concessions: under 18s, unwaged & 65+

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Together! Solidarity and Community on Screen

November 2026 – March 2027

What makes a community? What brings people together and gives them common purpose? And just what is possible when that common purpose yields strength and resolve — to resist, to maintain, to survive?

In response to our exhibition Close to Home, the films in this season all circle ideas of community and solidarity and ask key questions about the limits of each. They are rooted in stories of working-class lives, from across different countries and times, from Gateshead to Prague via Helsinki. They explore the most basic conditions of life – labour and housing – and the determination, integrity and compassion to fight the erosion of those conditions.

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Supported by Film Hub North with National Lottery funding on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network.