Daniel Bird

Parajanov’s Triptych: This program brings together three remarkable short works, meditations on the nature of art and artists that boast his singular, colorful, collage-like style and which have been newly restored: Kiev Frescoes (1966), consisting of the remaining footage of a confiscated project about post–WWII Kiev; Hakob Hovnatanyan (1967), a tribute to the art of nineteenth-century Armenian painter; and Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme (1986), bringing to life the playful work of Georgian outsider artist Niko Pirosmani.

Sergey Paradjanov (1924-1990) Armenian-Georgian filmmaker and artist Sergei Parajanov’s radical, visually dynamic Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Color of Pomegranates, distinguished by cultural folklore and myth, are only the best known works of this peerless Soviet-era filmmaker, a student of Moscow’s prestigious VGIK film school. Internationally respected, he nevertheless became increasingly controversial in the Soviet Union, dealing with censorship and imprisonment


Daniel Bird read Psychology and Philosophy at Keele University before completing a Master’s in Philosophy at Warwick University. He has organised retrospectives with BFI Southbank, Film Society at Lincoln Center and Centre Georges Pompidou. He has curated exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (The Listening Eye: Walerian Borowczyk) and The Horse Hospital (Basha: The Unsung Hero of Polish Posters, Lunar Futurism: Costumes, Props and Ephemera from On the Silver Globe). He is the co-founder of Friends of Walerian Borowczyk, a non-profit association based in Paris. He co-produced Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection for Arrow Films, which was awarded the Focal International Award for Best Preservation and Restoration Project. He is the author of Boro: Walerian Borowczyk (2017), published by Friends of Walerian Borowczyk in association with Editions Georges Pompidou. He has co-produced restorations of Walerian Borowczyk’s Goto, Island of Love, Andrzej Zulawski’s On the Silver Globe and Aleksei German’s Khrustalyov, My Car! In 2019, he devised Temple of Cinema #1: Sayat Nova Outtakes, an installation from unused footage from Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, which was presented as part of Art Directions at International Film Festival Rotterdam and Golden Apricot International Film Festival. Between 2018 and 2020, he worked with the National Cinema Centre of Armenia, Dovzhenko Centre and Georgian Film to produce Parajanov Triptych.