Events

Starting this month we are delighted to be hosting our newest exhibition in the new Craft Gallery. Colour Connections is the coming together of four artists, each a specialist in their own field, who overlap and unite through shared creative processes.

Catherine Breillat’s exploration of feminine tales continues with this subversive take on the story of Bluebeard.

Claire Denis revisits Africa, the setting for her celebrated first feature Chocolat, in this starkly haunting film that explores post-colonial Africa.

This year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar winner is a skillful blend of love story, police procedural crime thriller and legal drama.

Ana’s ability to weave intense, poetical storytelling into hauntingly tender melodies creates a musical journey that is widely tipped to go mainstream this year. The songstress is here joined by cellist Jonathan Hennessey-Brown.

Shrek is duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin.

We’d like to invite you to join us to hear about and discuss our plans for the future of the estate. The next briefing will take place at The Mansion House, Totnes on 4 September.

A jawdroppingly subversive and efficient piece of work, as former documentarian Alberto Cavalcanti establishes the ultimate bucolic English village into which he drops a platoon of German paratroops who hope to lay the groundwork for the forthcoming invasion.

The 5th annual Totnes Short Film Festival brings the best in young and up-and-coming film-making talent to the the Barn Cinema.

This documentary follows the setting up of the Landmatters Co-operative and their ongoing fight to gain the right to create a new living permaculture project.

Kurosawa’s thoroughly entertaining action romp follows the adventures of a princess, her retainer and two arguing servants transporting clan treasures through enemy territory.

Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore returns with an epic valentine to his Sicilian heritage.

For her feature film debut as writer/director, actor Rachel Ward has created a dark, gothic drama about family conflict and taboo relationships.

This is an opportunity to see the up and coming musicians of tomorrow, playing for you today.

When his mother’s new job takes him to China, 12 year-old Dre finds himself the victim of a class bully. Luckily Jackie Chan is on hand…

Alzheimer’s Society has partnered with The Dartington Hall Trust to hold a fundraising ‘Memory Walk’ on the Dartington estate on Sunday 12th September.

Mother is the wholly refreshing corrective to the much abused film term – Hitchcockian. At once nail-bitingly tense and brimming with humanity, this terrific film comes fresh from sweeping the Asian Film Awards.

Edward Espe Brown, Carolyn Steel | This course steps back from asking what to eat and how to cook it and reflects on our relationship to food as a whole, and what it can tell us about how we relate to the natural world and our inner world.

Jack Nicholson stars in Bob Rafelson’s seminal portrait of a disaffected and cynical America.

A play for four musicians and one actor, by Hugh Nankivell and Peter Oswald.

Stray Dog is arguably Kurosawa’s best 1940s film. Set in post-war Tokyo, the story of a cop obsessively hunting the criminal who stole his gun…

Hot on the heels of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo comes this sequel, which sees Lisbeth Salander and crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist once again caught up in a brutal murder investigation.

Sylvain Chomet’s second feature film is a winner on every level. Our weary hero is an over-the-hill magician, complete with less-than-friendly white rabbit; their adventures based upon an unrealised script by Jacques Tati.

Summer movies just don’t come any better than this classic slice of Tati.

When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Bellville Sisters…

Kate Davies, Jonathan Robinson | How can we create sustainable human systems – social, organizational, political and economic? What methods and processes help generate innovative social change? What are the skills of successful change agents?

This samurai Macbeth relocates the Scottish play to the civil wars of the 16th century Age of Warring States.

Visconti’s masterpiece The Leopard gets a breathtaking new digital restoration courtesy of Martin Scorcese and the Gucci foundation.

Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami’s film is a startlingly enigmatic work that begins with Juliette Binoche’s gallery owner in Tuscany attending a talk given by an English author about authenticity, fakes and copies in art.

Surrounded by the intricate textiles of Jilly Edwards, Nigel Morgan plays music for solo
guitar in the lounge of William Lescaze’s High Cross House.

Kitty Galore, formerly an agent for cat spy organisation MEOWS, has gone rogue and hatched a diabolical plan for world domination.

Sorrentino’s life of notorious Italian PM Guido Andreotti is just as telling a picture of the modern state of Italy as The Leopard’s depiction of the lost world from which it emerged.

Alastair McIntosh, Iain MacKinnon, Sulemana Abudulai | The process of gaining community ownership or control of land involves working within a legal framework which has not in the past been friendly to community rights, and also can present that group with a whole new set of responsibilities and challenges. This course will address both aspects of the process.

The Leopard’s Prince of Salina is the ultimate exponent of familial duty.

Arguably the greatest of all Eric Rohmer’s films, Ma nuit chez Maud, is set over a Christmas in Clermont-Ferrand, where his brilliant script is the basis for a profoundly insightful study of desire, doubt and self-delusion.

Director Stephen Frears brings to life Posy Simmonds’ comic strip, serialised in The Guardian from 2005-2007, starring Gemma Arterton as glamorous newspaper columnist Tamara Drewe.

2026 and the city of the future, where the rich enjoy a metropolitan life of luxury in contrast to the poor who work in hard labour beneath ground to keep the city moving. This is the setting for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, rightly regarded as one of the most influential films of all time.

Balthazar Blake is a master sorcerer in modern day Manhattan in need of an apprentice to help save the city from the forces of darkness.

Seth Lakeman, widely regarded as the UK’s foremost folk singer songwriter, makes his eagerly awaited return with new album Hearts & Minds.

Firmly established as one of the world’s finest chamber orchestras and known worldwide for its superlative performances and award-winning recordings.

Winner of multiple audience awards including the 2010 Sundance World Cinema Audience Award, Undertow continues Latin-America’s exploration of magical realism in modern cinema.

October 4 – 8, 2010 | Tim Jackson, Ed Mayo, Julie Richardson | Unless we can radically lower the environmental impact of our economic activity – and there is no evidence to suggest that we can – we will have to devise a path to prosperity that does not rely on continued growth.

There’s a revolution under way in South America, but most of the world doesn’t know it.

This is Now is New Art Club’s newest comedy show and the most recent in a long line of hits from comedy dance duo, Pete Shenton and Tom Roden.

This beguiling biopic tells the true outsider story of primitive artistic genius Seraphine de Senlis and her heavenly inspired canvases.

Narrated by Liam Neeson, The Wildest Dream uses astonishing visuals to tell the intersecting stories of George Mallory, the first man to attempt a summit of Mount Everest, and Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who finds Mallory’s frozen remains 75 years later.

Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire is both a rural idyll and the suicide capital of the north. Filmmaker Jez Lewis, who grew up there, goes back to find out why and in telling his own story illuminates debates about the social divide, poverty, addiction and a whole section of society, forgotten and seemingly unreachable.

Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others.

The story of schizophrenic homeless musician Nathaniel Ayers, as told by the LA Times, illuminates both the man and the city.

Whaletone is an imaginatively created, funny, dynamic and adventurous piece of music theatre. The story involves banana cake, plum blossom remedies, a storm, a wedding, a Jamaican cow and a hippopotamus!

If a film can ever really be said to be the difference between life and death then this is it.

11 – 15 October 2010 | Erin Smith, Simon Mills | Today many of us have forgotten how vital interaction with the natural world is to our wellbeing. This experiential course will explore how cultivating our relationship to plants can improve our physical and emotional health on many different levels.

Mental Health as a cinematic plot device is both used and explored in Scorcese’s homage to the 1950s pot boiler.

John Earle introduces and narrates this classic archive film of the 1933 attempt to scale Everest which came within 1500 feet of the summit…

LT22 Radio La Colifata is a radio show produced entirely by patients at a Buenos Aires psychiatric hospital. This screening will be followed by a panel discussion led by Celia Atherton, Director of Social Justice at Dartington, with Tim Yealland from English Touring Opera.

Deemed impossible to put onscreen because of its strong sexual content and language, James Jones’ novel emerged as a lavish, star-studded multi-oscar winning spectacle.

This year’s Julie & Julia sees Roberts taking on the true life role of writer Liz Gilbert in the screen adaptation of her bestselling memoir.

Theatre for 5-10 year olds by Daniel Jamieson. Imagine you woke up one morning and had wings instead of arms! Well that’s just what happens to Joe. He’s shocked, of course… you’d be too, wouldn’t you? Flying is for the birds.

October 17 – 23, 2010 | Jenny Mackewn and Toni Spencer | This practical and evocative course will explore questions of how to facilitate and lead groups engaged in the complex challenges of creating a sustainable future for all life. What forms best reflect our intentions? What practices reflect and therefore enable a more ‘eco-logical’ way of being? What approaches to leadership support and model the change we seek to facilitate?

Based on the powerful novel by Daniel Woodrell, this is a stunningly well made film with one of the most powerfully written and acted heroines seen for a long time.

Calendar Girls director Nigel Cole brings the same ensemble sensibility of humour and pathos to this fact-based comedy drama.

Belgian animators Aubier and Patar take their beloved characters on a fantastic voyage via the centre of the earth…

October 25 – November 5, 2010 | One or two-week course | Fritjof Capra (by videolink), Gustavo Esteva (by videolink), Stephan Harding, Philip Franses, Satish Kumar, Oliver Greenfield, Toni Spencer, Anne Miller | This course will enable students to appreciate and understand what an ecological world view is and how it can be applied in their lives and work.

Fresh from winning his 2009 British Composer Award, Graham Fitkin has assembled a 9-piece band of outstanding virtuoso musicians to perform his punchy, no-nonsense music.

Produced by David Lynch, this could be seen to be a corrective to all those who thought mistakenly that Herzog had gone mainstream with Bad Lieutenant.

Tasked with pursuing a schoolboy suspected of supplying marijuana, a young policeman becomes troubled by the clash between duty and instinct.

Based on the best-selling illustrated novel Diary of a Wimpy Kid this entertaining film chronicles the adventures of wise-cracking pre-teen Greg Heffley.

The latest work from renowned collaborators Suzy Willson (director) and Paul Clark (composer), Under Glass is a performance which takes place in a series of glass jars and cabinets.

The Odd Couple is Neil Simon’s adaptation of his own play about Felix and Oscar, the comical mismatched roommates made famous in the 1968 film by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

November 8 – 12, 2010 | Ellen MacArthur, Ken Webster | How do we educate for sustainability? What new skills and ways of thinking can help young people and the institutions that work with them prepare for a challenging – and unpredictable – future? What qualities of leadership can inspire a new generation of engaged citizens?

Rooted in the musical traditions of Nigeria, Angola and Brazil and infused with contemporary European classical and jazz styles, percussionist and composer Adewale’s music is a global fusion of musical influences that appeals directly to the senses.

The musical world in 17th Century was divided between French and Italian style but at the end of the century there were attempts to reconcile these differences.

Teachers: Dusty Gedge, Gary Grant, John Little | By the end of the course, participants will have an overview of the benefits and challenges of green roofs and walls, how they are designed and the practical skills necessary to build your own.

Teacher: Lynne Franks | How can we create and embed a more sustainable feminine style of values-based leadership in all areas of business and society? How do we redefine success for the individual as well as for business?

Another great opportunity to see three exceptionally talented young musicians perform at the start of their musical development with South West Music School.

The Richard Alston Dance Company will perform a public Lecture Demonstration of their latest piece Overdrive.

Throughout December Dartington is hosting our first Christmas Tree Festival in the medieval courtyard.

Ben Mellor is a poet, writer, musician, actor and cyclist. Here the BBC Slam Poet Champion presents an “in progress” version of his new work, following a short residency at Dartington’s Schumacher College.

Each year King Edward VI Community College presents a massively popular celebratory seasonal concert in Dartington’s Great Hall.

St Agnes Fountain celebrate their 10th anniversary Christmas tour with a brand new celebratory album.

The 150 strong Dartington Community Choir is one of the largest and best regarded in the region, and its members are drawn from throughout South Devon.

Schumacher College course | Tchenka Sunderland, Lindsay Clarke & Chris Salisbury | At this, the darkest time of the year, it seems appropriate to seek the redemption of the Dark. Building on last year’s course, Darkness and Transformation, this course will enable participants to reflect on how we can renew our relationship with the creative mysteries of darkness and come to understand and appreciate its powers and gifts.

A festive programme from the Dufays presents a cockle-warming concert of Carols, dances and ballads for the Christmas season.

One, two or three-week course | Hardin Tibbs, Philip Franses, Jean Boulton, Gunter Pauli | January 4 – 21, 2011 | Consider any of the problems or challenges facing our modern world and it will quickly become apparent that they are part of a whole complex system which we ignore at our peril. This course provides an introduction to systems thinking and its application to sustainability, ecodesign, organisational and social change, industry, business and enterprise.

Schumacher College course | *Allan Kaplan, Bunker Roy, Aruna Roy | This course will explore the changing face of development, beginning with a discussion of the broader global context within which any development work must take place, moving on to look at the process by which individuals facilitate change within communities, and finally examining different examples of radical grassroots community activism and empowerment.

Schumacher College course | Chris Nichols, Chris Seeley | Recent economic events have told us that our present economic system is vulnerable. Can organisations be successful and genuinely sustainable – in the broadest sense?

One, two or three-week course | Mary-Jayne Rust and Dave Key | Ecopsychology has a fundamentally important role to play in responding to current social and ecological challenges. This three-week course explores the many layers of this role. From denial to inspiration for action, our motivations are governed by our emotional responses and what we believe about our place in the web of life.