NOW SHOWING: LONDON SCREEN GUIDE w/c 03.03.17
To help your hunt for adventurous moving pictures, RADIANT CIRCUS hand-picks screen highlights for the week ahead*. This week, there’s a continued focus on films by and about women as we hurtle towards International Women’s Day (WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH). With so many new seasons and festivals launching, be prepared to clone yourself. Our featured film is A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, a delicious modern horror directed by Ana Lily Amirpour.
FRIDAY 3 MARCH 2017, 19:30, BERNIE GRANT ARTS CENTRE
Documentary SEMBENE! celebrates the “father of African Cinema”, Ousmane Sembène, and begins a brief season of his films at the North London venue.
Looking for an alternative? Scare yourself silly at BFI with their CULT screening of EXORCIST III (20:40). Whilst lacking a certain Linda Blair, it contains one of the scariest jumps on the silver screen. Our lips are sealed.
SATURDAY 4 MARCH 2017, VARIOUS, BFI
It’s time to go a bundle on the films of KELLY REICHARDT at BFI today with plenty of Q&As with the director/screenwriter and an IN CONVERSATION (16:30) that’s selling fast.
Looking for an alternative? POLTERGEIST (20:45) celebrates its 35th anniversary in screen-expanding 70mm at the Prince Charles Cinema. There’s a warning about the quality of the print. It might add to the film’s spooky quality, or it might not.
SUNDAY 5 MARCH 2017, 19:00. THE MOTH CLUB
Shot in glorious black and white, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT picks up the baton from last week’s Farsi horror, UNDER THE SHADOW. Behind the scenes, production house Spectrevision, co-founded by Elijah Wood, is a welcome contemporary source of genre cinema – see also THE BOY and GREASY STRANGLER.
Looking for an alternative? Regent Street screens BATANG WEST SIDE (13:00), part of the LAV DIAZ: JOURNEYS exhibition at London Gallery West about the work of the Filipino independent filmmaker.
MONDAY 6 MARCH 2017, 20:30, BFI
We love it when Hollywood stars spiral out of the mainstream and delve into the margins. Try pairing BFI’s preview of PERSONAL SHOPPER (20:30) starring Kristen Stewart with Brady Corbet’s THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER, currently doing its rounds on blu-ray.
TUESDAY 7 MARCH 2017, 19:00, THE FRONTLINE CLUB
DOUBLE BILL SCREENING: THE BATTLE FOR IRAQ & FIGHTING ISIS, features two PBS documentaries followed by a Q&A with director Joshua Baker and producer Dan Edge. A timely presentation by PBS Frontline and The Guardian.
WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH 2017, VARIOUS
Wednesday is stuffed with cinematic delights (listed A-Z by venue)
Celebrate International Women’s Day with a premiere of IN BETWEEN (18:15) at BFI.
If you missed Monday’s preview, there’s a screening of PERSONAL SHOPPER + Q&A (18.30) with costumer designer Jurgen Doering at Ciné Lumière as part of FASHION AND CINEMA.
Head to The Horse Hospital for NOVA NIGHTS: PROGRESSIVE, TRANSGRESSIVE & UNDERGROUND (19:00), a counter-cultural evening “conceived and hosted” by Billy Chainsaw.
JW3 has announced that director/producer Alexander Bodin Saphir will join a special screening of WHO’S GONNA LOVE ME NOW?, a drama about an Israeli living with HIV.
Prince Charles Cinema plots humanity’s evolution with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in 70mm. The film begins at 20:01 (we see what you’ve done there…).
THURSDAY 9 MARCH 2017, 20:30, BFI
BFI continues their bold EXPERIMENTA strand with EMERGENCE FROM THE UNDERGROUND: 80s ALTERNATIVE FILM AND VIDEO CULTURE AND MICHAEL O’PRAY. An exercise in promoting experimental film, the programme features work from Derek Jarman, Holly Warburton, Gorilla Tapes, Bill Viola, Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol.
Looking for an alternative? Why not try Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ENDLESS POETRY (20:30) at Whirled Cinema? One of those filmmakers for whom the phrase “legendary” was surely invented.
FESTIVALS / LONGER RUNS / TALKS (A-Z)
Barbican starts its OSCAR WEEK. Any jokes about screening the right film are exhausted by now, so please don’t…
If 2001 whets your appetite for space travel, why not try the real thing with Bertha Dochouse’s weeklong run of HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! at Curzon Bloomsbury.
The Kelly Reichardt retrospective continues at BFI. Discuss themes from her films at the CERTAIN WOMEN AND OTHER ANIMALS symposium (SUNDAY 5 MARCH, 12:00). Or, you could join the free IMDB HACKATHON (WEDNESDAY 7 MARCH, 18:30) to help credit significant women in film.
CLOSE-UP ON SHIRLEY CLARKE runs from 03 to 18.03.17. Close-up Film Centre has the words: “Clarke harnessed the power of cinema to create a parallel dimension, while grounding the journey by hiding her cinematic tactics in plain sight.”
Deptford Cinema begins a season of Indonesian FILMS FROM THE ARCHIPELAGO. We like the look of STREET PUNK!: BANDA ACEH (MONDAY 6 MARCH, 19:30).
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL launches on 6 MARCH and is starting to sell well. Barbican, British Museum and Picturehouse Central are the core London venues.
And finally…
Regent Street Cinema hosts the opening night of the 19th LONDON ASIAN FILM FESTVAL on THURSDAY 9 MARCH with a gala screening of MANGO DREAMS (reception 19:00-20:00, screening 20:00).
More places to shelter from the storm in next week’s GUIDE.
*As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any mistakes.
Featured image: A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014).