Lines of the Hand by Gareth Evans
In an extended reflection on place and walking in Hackney, film curator and producer Gareth Evans explores five films made in the borough across the last 50 years by some of the UK's leading experimental filmmakers. Beginning with John Smith's Hackney Marshes - November 4th 1977 and Andrew Kotting's pedalo-engined Swandown / Bunhill Fields Artefact, the essay takes in Emily Richardson's Hackney Wick-focused Memo Mori and nine nine nine nine nine, Frances Scott's portrait of Beck Road.
Making a cultural pilgrimage through Hackney to explore memory, recovery, lives lived and places lost, it concludes in Haggerston Park with Andrea Luka Zimmerman's pandemic portrait Shelter in Place.
The pamphlet also includes an essay on a walk which passes through the locations of all five films and an afterword on the context and inspirations of this project. The first 150 copies of Lines of the Hand bought through Burley Fisher Books includes a fold-out map of the film locations. For the first year of publication, all five films will be available to stream online for free - information is included in the pamphlet.
Gareth Evans is a Hackney-based writer, editor, film / event producer, creative consultant and host / presenter. He works on special projects for the London Review of Books and curates their Screen at Home series. https://garethevans.org.uk/
200 x 150mm, 56 pages
Published by Burley Fisher Community Press in June 2026.