Nightshift

Robina Rose’s NIGHTSHIFT was shot as a low budget film over five nights at the Portobello Hotel in West London. It was created in parallel to other important projects by British filmmakers of the 70s and early 80s, which explored the work of women in relation to politics, film, desire, and society. The film features punk icon Jordan as the hotel receptionist and unfolds during a single nightshift, capturing the monotony of such work juxtaposed with dreamlike sequences depicting numerous eccentric hotel guests, portrayed by then-prominent figures of countercultural London. Notable cast members include poet and actor Heathcote Williams and experimental filmmaker Anne Rees-Mogg. The director of photography was American independent filmmaker Jon Jost and the soundtrack was composed by Simon Jeffes of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The film premiered at the 1981 Edinburgh Film Festival and later screened at the 12th International Forum of New Cinema in 1982.
NIGHTSHIFT has been digitally restored on behalf of Lightbox Film Center at University of the Arts (Philadelphia) in collaboration with The British Film Institute & Cinenova. Restoration funding provided by Ron and Suzanne Naples.
Restored in 4K resolution from the original 16mm reversal a/b rolls and 16mm optical track on loan from the British Film Institute. Restoration supervised by: Ross Lipman, Corpus Fluxus.

Screening of the Harun Farocki Institute in 2018

Robina Rose was born in 1951 to Danish and German parents and grew up in Notting Hill, London. After leaving school, she became a film projectionist at the Arts Lab on Drury Lane, Covent Garden. Rose graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1977, where she did camera work on Celestino Coronado’s Hamlet starring Helen Mirren and Quentin Crisp. Rose was awarded a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellowship and moved to Berlin, where she was later invited to teach at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) and remained there for the rest of the 1980s. On her return from Berlin she worked for the Community Programme Unit of the BBC.