The Space Between
Noor Afshan Mirza & Brad Butler
2005 | 12 min | Colour | 16mm

Noor Afshan Mirza and Brad Butler’s The Space Between, is an extravagantly layered, rhythmically complex investigation into a particular architectural space. By using an arsenal of different cinematic tools, including double exposure, freeze framing and careening camera work, Mirza & Butler transform a handful of recognisable features, including a nondescript interior hallway and a column of exterior balconies, into an increasingly dense and abstract visual field. 

The Exception and the Rule
Noor Afshan Mirza & Brad Butler
2009 | 37 min | Colour & B/W | Digital

Mirza/Butler’s The Exception and the Rule, filmed in Pakistan and India, is a complex bricolage of formal experiments, overlapping narratives, fictional collaborators and performative quotations that explore Bertolt Brecht’s concept of Lehrstücke so as to ask the simple but urgent question, “what is it to make a political film?”, The Exception and the Rule supplements Mirza/Butler's ongoing agitprop project The Museum of Non Participation, which provides a place for workshops, community publishing, street interventions, language classes and public seminars through its various manifestations in Karachi and London.

The Unreliable Narrator
Noor Afshan Mirza & Brad Butler
2015 | 17 min | Colour | Digital

The Unreliable Narrator narrates the 2008 Mumbai attacks, alternately from a position of the terrorists and of a seemingly impartial commentator. The video sourced from CCTV recordings of the siege, together with telephone conversations between the attackers and their controllers, suggest that the event was performed for the benefit of news cameras: this is just a trailer, the main feature is yet to come.

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Mirza/Butler are currently in production on a fiction film installation, a new commission by HOME in partnership with FLAMIN, Spectre Productions, Delfina Foundation, Centre national des arts plastiques, Edith-Russ-Haus and àngels barcelona. Their recent presentations include 20th Biennale Sydney, Walker Art Center, Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery. They were shortlisted for Artes Mundi 6, Jarman award 2012 and recipients of the Paul Hamlyn award 2015. Mirza/Butler also founded the artists’ film production space, no.w.here and currently live and work in London.

Part of Filmarmalde's Anniversary programme, curated by Gordon Shrigley.