Screening and Talk - WE ARE MAKING A FILM ABOUT MARK FISHER

'We are making a film about Mark Fisher' a film by Close and Remote, produced by Tim Burrows.

In collaboration with Pluto Press and The Other MA (TOMA), The Old Waterworks (TOW) is hosting a series of events about ideas and people who are shaping the world around us.

We are making a film about Mark Fisher will be screened at The Old Waterworks and will be followed by a talk by Simon Poulter from Close and Remote.

Saturday 14 February 2026. 2 - 4pm

We charge a minimal fee as we have found people book spaces but don't attend. Please email if you need a free place and they are all taken.

About the film
The film was made with no budget, no studio backing and no institutional permissions. We started on a park bench in Rochford, Essex. A conversation between Tim Burrows and Simon Poulter.

Sophie Mellor and Simon Poulter, working as Close and Remote, developed the film between 2024-2025. Through instagram, they enlisted the support of 70 people to make the film.

The film explores solidarity, shared labour and digital connectivity. It enacts what Fisher insisted was still possible - decapitalised cultural production, collective agency among the ruins of neoliberal atomisation. A reminder that DIY doesn’t mean private - it means working together.

In the film nine chapters drift across hauntological terrain - from Felixstowe’s windblown beaches to the CCRU’s delirial hyperstition lab; from K-punk’s midnight blog posts to the echoing chambers of The Vampire Castle; from viral slogans ('it’s easier to imagine the end of the world') to streets filled with protest and grief. The film deliberately projects beyond 2017 into the Perma Crisis of 2025/26.

It navigates what Fisher said alongside contemporaneous footage shot by Close and Remote in London. Brexit. Thatcher’s death. The Dump Trump rally. Starmer’s ‘Island of Strangers’ - the phrase itself sounding like something K-punk might have quickly drawn into a post on how Labour abandoned the Left.

The film is not nostalgia. Fisher warned against that. It is an evocation of failed promised futures. And in doing so, it becomes a kind of working group for collective dreaming - a counter to the doom scroll machine of capitalist realism. All about the people who connected in some way.

Where others accelerated towards Mars and living forever (Musk et al), Fisher re-routed the signal through public pedagogy in K-punk and music, transforming these things into a readymade audience. His gift was in making complexity speak in plain language, not in simplifying it but in dignifying the reader - you can understand this. You’re not alone. The one person NME.

Capitalist Realism now reads as a user’s manual for the political psychosis of post-Brexit Britain - precarity normalised, education hollowed out, a tech elite mimicking myth (Palantir). Yet in 2026, something stirs, a moment for action and solidarity. Not Saturday protest and work on Monday but the idea of a recombined force against Trash Populism. People are up for it. Refusing the misery feed and returning to action. Turning toward each other, asking new (old) questions.

This film doesn’t seek to explain Fisher. It is aimed at inspiring action in contending what was taken away and bringing it back. We are making a film about Mark Fisher, and not that you are watching…so are you.

(So the debate lands back in the room where it is screened)

Code of Conduct

Please be aware that TOW operates a code of conduct that we require all attendees to respect. If you feel you are not able to adhere to this code of conduct we respectfully request you opt out of attending:

• Be kind and welcoming to others. Harassment and sexist, ableist and racist, transphobic or other prejudicial comments or behaviours are not welcome;
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences;
• Respect personal space and ask before entering it;
• Be mindful of language that may exclude or alienate. Please do not disparage others.

We may ask you to leave if you fail to adhere to this code of conduct, with any agreement you have with TOW being terminated with immediate effect.

Further Information

The Old Waterworks is an artist-led charity in Southend-on-Sea that provides studios, facilities, and research and development opportunities for artists as well as quality arts events and experiences for our surrounding community. TOW addresses the need for spaces for artists, a venue for cultural activities and workshops to take place, and a site for research and development.

The Other MA is an 18-month artist-run learning programme based in Southend-on-Sea supporting artists who have faced barriers accessing art education and the ‘art world’. TOMA was set up in 2016 to offer affordable, accessible and responsive art education to artists and we are the only postgraduate level art programme in Essex after all others were stopped by their host universities.

The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.