Shakespeare on film was a global phenomenon of silent cinema, but as the talkies appeared, this production waned until Japanese filmmaking genius Akira Kurosawa delighted with his amazing Throne of Blood in 1957 and paved the way for a plethora of Shakespeare adaptations globally where filmmakers used their own cultural forms and traditions to embrace Shakespeare whilst retaining the essential elements of his characters and themes.

From Bollywood to Russia to Australia and beyond, Wootton describes Shakespeare movies from a variety of languages, periods and cultures, proving that his work belongs to the world and remains vitally alive and well in contemporary art because of its emotional empathy and relevance to people across the planet.

This talk is followed by a special screening of Still Shakespeare, five Film London/FLAMIN experimental animation shorts from London animators Shaun Clark, Sharon Liu, Farouq Suleiman, Kim Noce and Meghana Bisineer, inspired by Othello, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear.