The Annihilation of Fish + Carmen Thompson intro

We are delighted to welcome Carmen Thompson for an in-person intro before the film.

Charles Burnett may be one of the great American directors of the past half-century, playing a part in formulating the famed LA Rebellion school and bringing a hardnosed reality to tales of Black American life. And yet, The Annihilation of Fish, starring James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave and Margot Kidder, is a rare light-hearted work from him. That it has gone without distribution since release is as absurd an indictment of the vagaries of film industry politics as you could find. Only now is this being rectified.

The Annihilation of Fish finds Burnett playfully ruminating on ageing and romance, via the guise of a sweet and sincere comedy, as two new tenants (Earl Jones and Redgrave) in an apartment building, both with peculiar eccentricities (Earl Jones has been recently released from a mental institution for fighting with a figment of his imagination; Redgrave has recently broken up with her ‘lover’ the long-dead 19thcentury composer Puccini). As the two grow closer together, Burnett uncovers their unique humanity amidst the hijinks and whimsical humour - yet without sensationalising or poking fun at their life experiences.

Carmen Thompson (she/her): Carmen is a film programmer, curator and cultural producer based in Edinburgh. Her interests centre around cinema from the African continent and the Black diaspora, perhaps most specifically at their intersections with non-fiction storytelling. Carmen currently works as Programming & Audience Manager for multi-award winning film exhibition & distribution company We Are Parable, and programmes for a number of international film festivals and markets, currently Red Sea Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest and Durban FilmMart. A 4K restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.