LRB Films & Interviews

Short films, long films and interviews drawn from the pages of the LRB.

Wildfowling on Frampton Marsh

James Meek and Anthony Wilks, 30 May 2023

21 December 2022 · 13mins

James Meek goes wildfowling with DeWayne Cross in Lincolnshire, while researching his piece on housebuilding and floodplains in and around Boston.

Between Mykolaiv and Kherson

James Meek, 21 December 2022

17 August 2022 · 11mins

James Meek reports from Mykolaiv and the area of southern Ukraine that has become a crucial battleground in the war, as Russian forces seek to maintain control of the land they’ve occupied west of the Dnieper, and the Ukrainians try to push them back across the river.

Five Lems

Jonathan Lethem, 21 December 2022

29 April 2022 · 06mins

How many Stanisław Lems were there? Five (at least), according to Jonathan Lethem. This short film, adapted from Lethem’s recent piece for the LRB, takes a voyage into the Lem cosmos.

8 April 2021 · 1hr 22mins

Anthony Wilks's film traces the connections between the events of Eric Hobsbawm’s life and the history he told, from his teenage years in Germany and his communist membership, to the jazz clubs of 1950s Soho and the makings of New Labour, taking in Italian bandits, Peruvian peasant movements and the development of nationalism in the modern world along the way.

Old Ties

Alan Bennett, 21 December 2022

24 December 2019 · 02mins

Alan Bennett examines his wardrobe, in his 2019 Diary.

28 October 2019 · 15mins

Ben Campbell traces the history of the London Review of Books through its typography and cover art.

The Horror of Doubt

Jonathan Rée, 21 December 2022

12 November 2018 · 06mins

Jonathan Rée considers Kierkegaard’s unfinished work, Johannes Climacus, about a student who falls in love with thinking.

What do you mean by ‘God’?

Jonathan Rée, 21 December 2022

9 October 2018 · 06mins

Philosopher Jonathan Rée unravels the story within Spinoza's knotty work of 17th century rationalism, the Ethics

Grenfell: The End of an Experiment?

Anthony Wilks, 21 December 2022

30 May 2018 · 59mins

Following the fire at Grenfell Tower, Anthony Wilks investigates the culture of Kensington and Chelsea Council and where it came from.

Lolling About

Alan Bennett, 21 December 2022

5 February 2018 · 02mins

Alan Bennett finds similarities between Love Island and the Bloomsbury set.

What about the revolutions?

Sheila Fitzpatrick, 1 April 1960

18 July 2017 · 02mins

Sheila Fitzpatrick considers how the Russian Revolution is viewed by the Russian government and academics in the West.

Kenneth Clark at the National Gallery

Nicholas Penny, 21 December 2022

16 May 2017 · 07mins

Nicholas Penny, former director of the National Gallery, explains how Kenneth Clark transformed the National Gallery as director from 1934 to 1945, with a look at the Myra Hess concerts and Clark's wide-ranging acquisitions.

Fritz Lang’s Use of Sound

Michael Wood, 20 January 2023

5 April 2017 · 09mins

Michael Wood looks at how Fritz Lang uses sound in his first two sound films, M (1931) and The Testament of Dr Mabuse (1933).