The Garden Cinema is partnering with Arena to present a series of documentaries about the world’s greatest artists and musicians, as captured by exceptional film-makers.

On Sunday, 9 February, we will screen two documentaries shown on BBC’s Arena about Ingmar Bergman, directed by Marie Nyreröd, who will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screenings.

Bergman and the Cinema (2007)

Ingmar Bergman, one of the world's most important and influential filmmakers, pays one final visit to Filmstaden, where many of his films were made.

Bergman and Fårö Island (2007)

Bergman discusses his career from his home on the desolate and mysterious Baltic island of Fårö. He talks about the childhood that shaped him, of how the art of film was often a comfort to him, of love and death, and of his worst demons.

Marie Nyreröd has worked at Sveriges Television, SVT, for forty years. She has been active as a reporter, director, editor, and producer. Marie interviewed Ingmar Bergman for the first time in 1983. After many years of conversations, persuasion, and planning, in 2002 she received permission to visit him at his home on Fårö, something no other journalist had been allowed to do. Thirty hours of filmed interviews and conversations were cut together in 2004 into three documentaries: Bergman and the Cinema, Bergman and the Theatre, and Bergman and Fårö Island.

Arena:

Described by Martin Scorsese as 'home to some of the greatest non-fiction film making of the last 40 years', Arena is the world's longest running arts documentary strand. Arena is dedicated to arts and culture high and low, from Visconti to Hip Hop, from Dylan and The Beatles to Nelson Mandela.

In 2000, Arena was given the Special Medallion at the Telluride Film Festival for its contribution to 'cutting edge film making'. It was there that Werner Herzog, a fellow medallion recipient, declared Arena to be 'the oasis in the sea of insanity that is television.' In 2019, Arena was given the Mel Novikoff Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival for its 'contribution to cinema'. Other awards include nine BAFTAS and twenty five nominations, six Royal Television Society awards, Primetime and International Emmys, the Peabody, the Prix Italia, and numerous honours from all over the globe.