Ken Russell's Dance of the Seven Veils receives its second screening after 50 years

From time to time we are fortunate to bring a UK premiere to Keswick Film Festival. This year we are incredibly pleased to be able to bring a second performance to the screen - Ken Russell’s Dance of the Seven Veils, his biography of Richard Strauss, was screened just once in February 1970, before it was banned.

Ken’s wife, Elize who will be joining us in Keswick for the Festival, put it succinctly "One viewing and the Beeb banned it. Mary Whitehouse sued. Ken’s mentor Sir Huw Wheldon defended Ken’s vision in court, but the suppression of the film by the Strauss family was irrevocable. Ken was fired and the film was banned for fifty years."

This second screening, from Ken’s personal copy, on 29th February 2020. It is anticipated that the reaction this time will be a little less strident.

In an evening hosted by Elize Russell at the Theatre by the Lake, the audience will get to see Dance of the Seven Veils along with a number of Ken Russell’s rarely-seen music videos and hear more about the creative process that led to the cutting of those restrictive ties with the BBC and the subsequent launching of the unfettered Ken Russell on to the world’s cinema screens.