Industrial Architecture as Cinematic Stage – The Sequel!​

This meeting will be offered as a hybrid event:

• in-person (Pye Building, via upper gate on Cheddars Lane)

• live-online stream

(ticket information for both options, below)

PREVIEW

Revisit how some of cinema’s most influential filmmakers adapted industrial architecture as cinematic stage!

This exploration of industrial architecture in cinematic storytelling (by Museum volunteers Gordon Davies, Kieran Gleave and James Klima) builds on previous presentations at the Museum about the industrial archaeology of filmmaking, film studios (STUDIOTEC), and the Museum of Technology’s direct legacy to cinema pioneer Robert W Paul.

This year’s CIAG film night provides updated research and commentary on the theme of cinematic dams, featuring:

• a 2025 video-essay revisitation to Estonia, where dams and hydro-electric plants featured prominently as film locations in Andrey Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker.

• research about the filming of the construction of Sakuma dam and hydro-electric plant (Japan) in the 1950s

• extended footage of 70th-anniversary revisitation to Jean-Luc Godard’s Operation Concrete (1955) filmed at Grande Dixence dam, Switzerland.

Also featuring analysis of the filmography of: Chantal Akerman | Michelangelo Antonioni | Ingmar Bergman | James Cameron | Alfred Hitchcock | Gale Anne Hurd | Stanley Kubrick | ​ Akira Kurosawa | Chris Marker & more!​

IN-PERSON TICKET information

Want to attend in-person? The in-person event will take place in the Pye Building at Cambridge Museum of Technology.  Entrance to the venue on the night is via the Museum’s upper gate on Cheddars Lane.  

Tickets (cash or card) will be available on the door for £5 (£3 for students with ID). Want to reserve a space? E-tickets are also available to purchase in advance (below): please bring an electronic or printed copy of your receipt. Ticket sales support the operation of Cambridge Museum of Technology; card-carrying members and volunteers of Cambridge Museum of Technology can attend for free. 

There will be free light refreshments courtesy of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMECHE) 

ONLINE STREAM - TICKET INFORMATION

Want to attend online (via a Microsoft Teams Meeting)? Remote participants can purchase a ticket (£5) until 13:00 BST on Monday 11 May 2026. Registered online participants will be sent online-meeting information by 14:00 BST on Monday 11 May 2026. Purchase e-ticket below. Please note that the online-stream will be live only (from 19:30-2045 BST): no replay.

About the presenters

Cambridge Museum of Technology volunteers Gordon Davies, Kieran Gleave and James Klima will provide commentary on film clips that screen industrial architecture as cinematic stage.

Gordon presented a video-essay of this research at 2025 Congress of The International Committee for The Conservation of Industrial Heritage and is currently preparing for publication an industrial archaeology (in co-operation with The Stanley Kubrick Archive) of how Stanley Kubrick and set-designer Anton Furst adapted Beckton gasworks in order to film Full Metal Jacket.

Kieran Gleave is completing a PhD in industrial heritage & archaeology at The University of Cambridge.

James Klima has produced multimedia content for the Museum and also co-presented CIAG’s guided walks, which enable Museum visitors to explore the local industrial landscape.