The Institution

The Institution is intended to develop further the questioning of ‘normal’ viewing habits, those easy responses to ‘harrowing documentaries’ and ‘social -conscious dramas’ which are served up on the nation’s small screens between the cornflakes and the motor car adverts. It is the prerogative of the sloppy, sentimental liberal to assume that someone who lives alone in a room must automatically be lonely and miserable. It is not as simple as that. Is what we imagine to be behind the living room windows (i.e. the surface appearance) necessarily the reality? We shall see. – I. B.

One only has to walk into a public bar in London to find the man I’m talking about. I can think of several places that are totally haunted by them. The bar is the extension of their room. The lonely evolve another world: a better world? Frequent contact with people can produce the need for a true alternative. I would like to suggest that ‘the occupant’ is close to something new. When all is said and done he’s happy. There are many possibilities. Is there really someone else in the house? Is it a house or a flat? Will a disaster occur? The camera will find out. – K.C.

Director: Ian Breakwell , Cast: The man in the room : Kevin Coyne , People in the neighbourhood : Phil Gray, Alison Jones, Felicity Sparrow, Paul Vester , William Wilding . Funded by Art Council of Great Britain.