LISTINGS POLICY

Our listings policy describes how everything gets put together at RADIANT CIRCUS including the daily decisions we make, the events we might overlook and how to get something sorted if we’ve got it wrong.

We exist to help promote and preserve alternative screen culture in London, giving our friends and followers an easy way to find out what’s on right now. There are four main type of event listings at RADIANT CIRCUS:

• SCREEN GUIDES: Each month (THIS MONTH) and screen week (THIS WEEK) we trawl websites, emails and social feeds to compile our comprehensive guides to London’s screen events. We also post daily updates to make it easier to find what’s on TODAY. We pick the events that we’d most want to be at to recommend as our Featured Attraction of the month/week/day.
• NOW BOOKING: We produce dedicated screen guides to individual attractions such as significant exhibitions, seasons and festivals. We often look downlist for more adventurous content. This is also where we post details of events that have been submitted by indie promoters.

We also promote our listings on TWITTER and INSTAGRAM and send out a free newsletter – THE BALLY – every Friday with links to our latest news and posts. > Sign up to stay looped!

WHAT WE – DO & DON’T – LIST (AND WHY)

We love independent and alternative film screenings and veer towards content that is overlooked and underappreciated. We also love people who do their own thing, including community cinemas, DIY film nights and freelance curators/programmers: in our experience, they provide some of London’s most authentic film experiences.

Unlike other listings sites, we’re more interested in what’s on than where it’s at. So, bar screenings and pop-up events on inflatable barges or in empty shops are fine with us. And whilst we will continue covering streaming events after the pandemic, our main love is doing things in darkened rooms with strangers, so we will always prioritise in-venue events over streaming activity if it comes to a fight for our time. Please note we only list live streaming events that have significant added value: we don’t tend to list films that are simply available online due to capacity limitations.

Our listings emphasise SINGLE-O exhibits (one-off screenings, particularly those with added value special features like film club screenings, expert introductions, meet the cast/crew Q&As, and panel discussions), FILM FESTIVALS and REP SEASONS, and what we call GRIND SHOWS (regular runs of new releases, restorations and revivals).

We work within (and often way beyond) the BFI category of “specialised films“. This includes micro and low budget movies, archival rereleases, subtitled foreign languages, genre-bending curiosities and feature-length documentaries. We’re fascinated by diverse stories that are different to our own, and care passionately about who tells them and how they are told. Our interests extend to artists’ and experimental film as well as pictures that move beyond fixed screens such as stage projections, street art and video installations (although we have limited capacity here…).

GENERAL ADMISSION: We try to only list events that are available to all and that you can book for at the time of listing. We therefore don’t list membership exclusives or similar closed-access/private events. For these reasons, we also don’t list family friendly and parent & baby screenings (where there are often understandable audience access restrictions) and those limited to 18 to 25 or 60+ year olds.

Of course, there will (always) be exceptions to our listings rules…* And, as a passion project fuelled by a lot of awesome volunteer power, there will be things we miss and there may be inclusions and omissions that seem confusing. We apologise in advance for any quickening of the pulse!

If we’ve got something wrong, let us know and we’ll get it sorted.

THE SMALL PRINT

This is our ‘get out of gaol’ card that goes on every listing we create:

*THE SMALL PRINT: Opinions author’s own. // As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any errors. Updates & corrections will be made to the online version only. // Event dates/times/formats are subject to change by the venue/organiser. Events may already be sold out at the time of posting, so please click quickly. // We try to list as many original format screenings as we can (8 to 70MM), but sometimes formats change due to age of the print, availability, logistics etc, so please check ahead with your venue if the format is your thing. // All images are used in the spirit of fair use for reporting & review – no ownership is implied or intended / unless otherwise credited to RADIANT CIRCUS as the original rights holder. We will remove any images immediately upon request – just get in touch. // We don’t filter our listings by age/certification: all readers & subscribers should therefore be 18+. // Finally, we always try to follow The Carny Code by “not screwing up anyone else’s game”, but everyone can make mistakes… If something does go wrong, we will always do our best to put it right. //.

And that’s the meat of it…

---

*We always include movies with giant / intelligent / amorous apes in them and get giddy at the use of the word ‘tentacle’ in a programme description… Also, goats tend to get our attention… you have been warned!