Queen's Film Theatre (QFT) is staging a 1960s film festival to mark the 40th anniversary of 1968 - a year of change around the globe. The festival includes a special screening of Stanley Kubrick’s '2001: A Space Odyssey', which is rarely seen on the big screen. QFT has been granted special permission by Kubrick's family to show the film.

Every day from Friday 10 until Thursday 16 October, Turning Point 1968 will screen a major film of the cinematic revolution of the 1960s.

Rolling Stones 'rockumentary' 'Sympathy for the Devil', and controversial documentary 'Rocky Road to Dublin', which examined the state of 1960s Ireland and was censored for more than 30 years, will also be shown as part of the University's Turning Point 1968 celebrations.

The film festival is part of a series of 1968 commemorative events being held at the University. Professor Todd Weir from Queen's School of History and Anthropology said: "Turning Point 1968 involves a series of events and an exhibition at Queen's Welcome Centre to mark four decades since the cultural and political revolution of the late sixties.

"1968 was a turning point in the history of Northern Ireland and many other countries around the world. The rise of the civil rights movement here, in which many Queen’s students played a leading role, the student protests in Paris, the growth of feminist and gay rights movements, and the global protest against the Vietnam War were expressions of a new political culture that was emerging across the globe."

Professor Todd added: "1968 is also the year in which QFT first opened its doors, so the film festival is the perfect way to celebrate the cinema’s 40th anniversary, whilst remembering how the events of the late sixties impacted on politics, culture and the arts around the world."

(JM/KMcA)