'Peter' screening

A Cumbria academic has returned triumphant from a New York sci fi film festival. Fine art programme leader Jane Topping, based at the University of Cumbria’s Institute of the Arts, won ‘best short film’ for her production Peter which was shown at the 5th Annual Philip K Dick Science Fiction Film Festival. Peter was screened to a rapt audience and impressed a panel of experts at the SoHo Playhouse in Manhattan on Monday May 29th 2017. The production is said to re-frame what is considered a classic of dystopian cinema (Blade Runner, 1982, dir. Ridley Scott) with the intention of positioning the artist within the text and so implying that such radical gestures are not only warranted and necessary but also implicit in the contemporary viewer’s experience of watching film. “This is an amazing result for Jane, we all knew that Peter was a splendid piece of work, and that view has been reinforced by the judging panel of this very influential international film festival,” Professor of Fine Art Robert Williams said. “This is a wonderful example of how effective our research through arts practice is at the Institute of the Arts and a massive confirmation of Jane’s work out in the world.”