LONDON.- CREATE has commissioned three short films about east London, directed and created by Paul Kelly and Saint Etienne, Eva Weber, Michael Smith and Wojciech Duczmal. London has been a constant throughout the artists’ careers and has been a source of influence, inspiration and curiosity. This film series will mix fact and fiction, and present personal journeys through London's Olympic boroughs, revealing the spaces between the landmarks and the places Londoners inhabit. The films will premiere at the Barbican on June 26 and will receive a second screening during CREATE on July 19th at the new arts venue Sugarhouse, created by winners of the CREATE Art Award 2011, Assemble CIC.

Lost in London by Michael Smith and Wojciech Duczmal
Michael Smith and Wojciech Duczmal have collaborated on many BBC documentaries and this film further develops their idea of the lyrical essay-film, or documentary-poem. Inspired by Baudelaire’s idea of the flâneur, the stroller whose epiphany is the shifting urban spectacle, the film is about one individual’s personal and poetic response to the unique spirit of a place. In this case, Michael’s response to the inner East End where he has lived for many years. He takes the viewer along with him on a physical and psychological wander through the fabric of the city, composed as much of memories as bricks and mortar. It is a film about the complex, bitter-sweet romance between an individual and his city. Like many long-term love affairs, it's a dysfunctional one, but nevertheless, this film is a love story between a person and a place.

Seven Summers - Saint Etienne presents a film by Paul Kelly
In the summer of 2005, director Paul Kelly spent three weeks with the band Saint Etienne, filming in the Lower Lea Valley. They captured an area that, by 2012, would be transformed from an industrial wasteland into the Olympic park. What they discovered was an area that was heavily polluted and largely deserted, but rich in history. This was the birthplace of the technological revolution. Within a couple of square miles between Bow and Hackney Wick, petrol was first refined and plastic was created. The area is now unrecognizable. Using unseen footage, and with the Olympics imminent, the film looks back on what has been lost, what has been gained, and what the future holds for the Lower Lea Valley.

Night, Peace. A film by Eva Weber
A contemplative study in movement and sound, this short film takes the viewer into the London night. The work explores the eerie isolation and fragile peace of a nocturnal urban landscape which is imprinted with echoes and resonances of daytime life. With beautifully composed imagery, we are taken on a journey past sleeping buildings and empty tube trains, through reflections of light and shadow playing on the river, and we soar high above the abstract maze of the city – as glimpses of spaces and lives normally invisible to us are revealed. An ambient and human soundscape is layered with contemporary music, conveying an atmosphere of intrigue and quiet contemplation – the melancholic suppressed longing of late-night London.

Anna Doyle, Producer, CREATE, said: “This diverse series of shorts captures the ever changing spirit of east London in this important year. These are the first film commissions by CREATE and we’re excited to show the work of some of London’s most interesting filmmakers as part of our 2012 summer programme.”