Blade Runner @ 40

The event is a collaboration between Bangor University and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris . It will feature a wide range of academics from across the globe discussing the film from a variety of perspectives. The event will be held on Monday 6 June and Tuesday 7 June at Bangor University.

The highlight will be a discussion in person with one of Blade Runner's original producers, Ivor Powell. Writer and producer Ivor Powell worked for nearly three years as an assistant for Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey and line produced for Ridley Scott on The Duellists and Alien as well as many other projects since.

There will also be a keynote lecture by Dr Sherryl Vint (UC Riverside) an acknowledged expert on science fiction in general and Blade Runner in particular.

Both talks will be followed by screenings of Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 in Pontio Cinema.

Adapted from Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ridley Scott’s landmark film has left an indelible mark on popular culture. It anticipated with remarkable prescience the world in which we have lived for the past four decades. Scott’s breath-taking vision of a futuristic and cosmopolitan metropolis created an aesthetic shock that continues to resonate to this day, not only in cinema but also in literature, art, design, gaming, fashion and even critical theory.

Conference organiser Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film, said, Hosted by the Centre for Film,Television and Screen Studies at Bangor University, this conference will bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore Blade Runner forty years since its release, debate its legacy and consider its position within visual culture.

The event has been generously funded by the British Association for American Studies, US Embassy in London and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. To find out more and book your place, please visit: http://cftss.bangor.ac.uk/conference.php.en

Blade Runner image: Jialxv - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0