Close Up

31 January 2020: The Film Not the Country

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The Film Not the Country
Winstanley Schtinter, 2020, 78 min

The Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was announced by Theresa May to take place in 2022 to celebrate the success of an independent Britain. The artist and filmmaker Winstanley Schtinter decided 2022 was too long to wait and appointed himself director, running the event at notorious Manchester nightclub The White Hotel on October 31 in 2019.

The Film Not The Country is a feature presentation documenting The Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland through surveillance footage from October 31 in 2019.

In a parallel "non-event", Schtinter and The Wardens will populate The Venue (Close-Up) until 23:00 on January 31, and at the moment the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland begins its departure from the European Union, a fleet of Mercedes Benz's will arrive to collect Schtinter and The Wardens as they set off for The Island in Ballyshannon (County Donegal, Ireland), the location of The Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 3.0.