Film Liberation Project Presents: Harold & Maude

The Film Liberation Project will celebrate this Valentine’s with a special screening of 'Harold and Maude', a rare romantic comedy which sees Bud Cort as Harold, a death obssessed young man, develop a romance with 79-year-old Maude (Ruth Gordon), a Nazi concentration camp survivor, who teaches Harold about the importance of living life to its fullest.

Directed by Hal Ashby, the film is a cult classic coming of age black comedy and a landmark entry of the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. It also plays host to a classic soundtrack by Cat Stevens. The film’s free spirited idealism and anti-establishment message is a direct influence, tonally and philosophically on the likes of modern directors such as Wes Anderson and Cameron Crowe.

Prior to the screening, ticket holders will receive a pre-event email with additional information about the film ('Film Texts') for you to explore, if you so wish. We call these the ABCs. These are designed so you can explore different levels of understanding the film at your own pace, allowing you to go as deep as you like into the film and its themes.

So if you watched A (a video essay) or read B (an article), category A, will give you a quick insight whereas B and C (an essay) will be more in depth. You are welcome to join The Film Liberation Project Film club in their post film chat or you can do the ABC’s in your own time.

About Film Liberation Project

Founded during the lockdown and partnered with The Tin Music and Arts, The Film Liberation project aims to break down the barriers that surround filmmaking to give anyone the chance to be a filmmaker. It’s about working with what you’ve got and giving yourself permission to create and try new things, learning film through making, watching, discussing, collaborating and getting things wrong.

At The Film Liberation Project, we know the importance of learning the craft of film through watching shorts and feature films, so communal film viewing and discussion is essential to the project's ethos.

After a successful pilot and creation of an online film community, The Film Liberation Film Club was created to keep connected and to continue to share, learn and create. Participants of the pilot take turns to choose a film, to give introductions and lead in post screening discussions. The Film Liberation Film Club has been solely online but we now feel it's time to bring the concept to venues and to the public so as to expand our community.

Film Liberation screenings are part of CineCov, made possible with support from the BFI using funds from the National Lottery. For more on CineCov Programme please see here.