What is it
This is a new monthly film discussion club hosted by film director and educator Matthew Harris.
What to Expect
Each session includes screenings of selected clips highlighting key elements from both films, guided focus points on specific themes and techniques, and open discussion where we explore contrasts, connections, and what these pairings reveal about how different cinemas approach the same areas. Whether you’re a dedicated cinephile or simply curious about how stories travel across cultures and traditions, these sessions offer a chance to see familiar films in a new light and discover international cinema that challenges Hollywood’s dominance.
Hollywood vs The World – Film Discussion Club
Twisted Tales: Modern Mythology of the 1980s
Sat 18 Apr, 2-5pm
£10 per session
Myths do not die. They mutate.
In the 1980s, three filmmakers from three continents reached into the oldest stories their cultures possessed and pulled out something urgent, strange and unresolved. Not the comfortable mythologies of the Hollywood tradition, sanitised for family consumption, but folklore in its original register: dangerous, transformative, and shot through with genuine darkness.
Return to Oz (Walter Murch, USA, 1985)
The film Disney didn’t know it had made. Returning to L. Frank Baum’s original novel rather than the beloved 1939 musical, it follows Dorothy who is not reassured by her adventures but marked by them. A girl navigating a world of severed heads, electric shock therapy and a kingdom turned to stone. Dismissed on release as too frightening, it now reads as one of Hollywood’s most radical depictions of female resilience and the cost of imagination in a world that pathologises it.
Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé, Mali, 1987)
It carries the cosmological weight of Bambara oral tradition into images of almost unbearable luminosity. A young man flees his sorcerer father across the West African landscape, their collision builds toward a reckoning that feels less like narrative resolution than elemental inevitability. It remains one of African cinema’s supreme achievements: a film that treats its mythology not as spectacle, but as living knowledge.
Eréndira (Ruy Guerra, Mexico/France, 1983)
Adapted from Gabriel García Márquez’s novella, it follows a young woman whose accidental destruction of her grandmother’s house condemns her to a life of sexual servitude across the Latin American landscape. Pitiless, surreal and shot through with the particular cruelty of magic realism, it is a myth about exploitation, endurance and the long, patient arithmetic of revenge.
Three films, three traditions, three young protagonists navigating worlds where adult power is monstrous and magic is never merely decorative. The stories are ancient. The anger is entirely contemporary.
Written and presented by Matthew Harris
Matthew Harris is an accomplished filmmaker and educator with 25 years of award-winning experience in video production and media. As the founder of The Blah Blah Company, he combines creative vision with practical expertise to deliver results.
Matthew holds a BA Hons in Video Production and more recently an MPhil in Screen Media and Culture from the University of Cambridge. His extensive teaching background spans multiple positions in Further and Higher Education, where he has provided students with both technical skills and artistic insight.
His recent film, “A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies,” has garnered international recognition, showcasing at festivals worldwide and earning an official selection at the Norwich Film Festival 2024. This practical industry experience informs his teaching approach, offering students relevant, current perspectives on filmmaking craft.
With a passion for innovation and a commitment to nurturing emerging talent, Matthew brings both academic rigor and real-world production knowledge to his role as a practical filmmaking tutor.
➡️ Book here