MOVIE • 2007

The Games

Audacious, often rather beautiful comedy satirizing Riefenstahlian pomposity.

In 2005 London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Optimistic’s story began in Hackney Wick on the edges of what would become this vast regeneration site. ‘The Games’ (2007) was a short film that staged a DIY Olympics amid the sites soon to be erased. It was commissioned by Urbis Manchester for the exhibition Play: Experience the Adventures of Our City and went on to screen widely, winning Audience Award at the East End Film Festival. The film is part of the BFI’s ‘London Calling’ collection.