NOW SHOWING: LONDON SCREEN GUIDE w/c 21.04.17

To help your hunt for adventurous moving pictures, RADIANT CIRCUS hand-picks London’s screen highlights for the week ahead*.

This week, there’s an interesting clutch of Korean delicacies care of the lovely people at Deptford Cinema/NXDFFF and Whirled Cinema. Documentary fans are also well served with the opening of new doc fest FRAMES OF REPRESENTATION at ICA.

Our featured film of the week is SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY at Bertha Dochouse/Curzon Bloomsbury to mark Earth Day 2017.

FRIDAY 21 APRIL 2017, 19:30, CLOSE-UP

Start your week with David Lynch’s sublime story about fitting in, THE ELEPHANT MAN. Part of the CLOSE-UP ON DAVID LYNCH retrospective. Still to come, fan and film critic favourite, MULHOLLAND DRIVE (28 & 29 APRIL).

SATURDAY 22 APRIL 2017, 18:10, CURZON BLOOMSBURY

SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY + Q&A with co-director Taggart Siegel is a “model of scientific insight, story-telling and cinematic panache”. The powerful doc about preserving life on our planet continues its short run on SUNDAY 23 APRIL and TUESDAY 25 APRIL when Taggart will also be around to answer audience questions.

Looking for an alternative? INDECENT DESIRES (20:00) at Deptford Cinema completes their brazen journey through Doris Wishman’s wild world of sexploitation. This “roughy” features an “eerie, occult twist that pits a young woman’s sexuality against her stalker’s voodoo-like powers”. Brace yourself.

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THE BROKEN CROWN (aka La Corona Partida) screens at Ciné Lumière.

SUNDAY 23 APRIL 2017, 14:00, BARBICAN

If, like us, you’re not actually running your marathon today, why not try watching acclaimed silent movie pianist Neil Brand play one instead? He’ll be pounding the keyboards for what will be a truly memorable screening of Henri Fescourt’s seven hour adaptation of LES MISERABLES + LIVE PIANO. Never before screened in the UK, this newly restored version of this much-adapted novel has all the original 1920s colouring tints and techniques in place. Time to carb up.

Looking for an alternative? THE BROKEN CROWN (17:00) and THE FURIES (20:00) screen at Ciné Lumière as part of the 7th annual Spring weekender for the London SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL (which also takes place at Regent Street Cinema).

MONDAY 24 APRIL 2017, 19:00, DEPTFORD CINEMA

KUNGFU GRANDMA + VIBRATION are two short films by Korean filmmakers resident in the UK. Screening for FREE at Deptford Cinema (first come, first served) and part of NXDFFF 2017, the evening includes an introduction and Q&A with KUNGFU GRANDMA director, Jeongwon Park.

Looking for an alternative? KEEP QUIET (18:30) at JW3 in partnership with UKJF is a remarkable doc about a perennial question: can a leopard ever change his spots? KEEP QUIET runs from 23 APRIL to 27 APRIL, various times.

TUESDAY 25 APRIL 2017, 19:30, CLOSE-UP

PALLAVI PAUL: LONG HAIR, SHORT IDEAS screens three short films by the young Indian filmmaker who will answer questions about her work afterwards. Close-Up are working with CARROLL/FLETCHER ONSCREEN to bring us this one, a blog dedicated to screening artists’ and experimental film.

Looking for an alternative? KISS OF LIFE + Q&A with director Emily Young (18:45) is part of the DIRECTED BY WOMEN 2017 series at Genesis Cinema. Includes Young’s short film, TOWER OF BABEL.

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THE AGE OF SHADOWS screens at Whirled Cinema.

WEDNESDAY 26 APRIL 2017, 20:00, WHIRLED CINEMA

THE AGE OF SHADOWS (20:00) is “a slick, suspension-fuelled espionage thriller featuring an all-star cast” from South Korean filmmaker Jee-Woon Kim. The short run starts at Whirled Cinema until 30 APRIL (times vary).

Looking for an (Korean) alternative? THE JOURNALS OF MUSAN (19:30) screens for FREE at Deptford Cinema in partnership with Korean Cultural Centre UK.

THURSDAY 27 APRIL 2017, 19:30, SYDENHAM FILM CLUB

We don’t get enough Greek film, so here’s a delightful chance to revisit the most successful Greek film ever at the national box office. A TOUCH OF SPICE is about food, love and family set against a backdrop of the historic tensions between Greece and Turkey. Think CINEMA PARADISO with spice rather than celluloid.

Looking for an alternative? 5 BROKEN CAMERAS + PANEL at Bertha Dochouse includes discussion with director Emad Burnat and is FREE but booking is required. This “extraordinary story of a Palestinian village’s resistance to encroaching Israeli settlements” was filmed on 6 cameras, 5 of which were destroyed whilst it was being made…


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CAUGHT kickstarts SCI-FI LONDON 2017 at Rich Mix.

FESTIVALS / SEASONS / TALKS

Barbican continues SCIENCE ON SCREEN with MINORITY REPORT (25 APRIL, 19:00), including a talk from acclaimed biologist Sir Genki Ramakrishnan about the philosophical implications of Spielberg’s future world.

Close-Up begins a new season, 22 – 30 April 2017, THE IMAGE SPEAKS: Miloš Forman and the Free Cinema Movement. Take advantage of two splendid double bills, A BLONDE IN LOVE/POOR COW (22 APRIL) and THE FOREMAN’S BALL/TOGETHER (23 APRIL).

ICA hosts FRAMES OF REPRESENTATION: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR DOCUMENTARY CINEMA 2017 from 21 to 29 APRIL.

LONDON SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL stages its 7th Spring weekender (21 to 23 APRIL) at Ciné Lumière and Regent Street Cinema.

NEW CROSS + DEPTFORD FREE FILM FESTIVAL opens this week (21 to 30 APRIL).

SCI-FI LONDON 2017 blasts off on 27 APRIL. The opening night screening is CAUGHT + Q&A with director Jamie Patterson (20:45) at Rich Mix.


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: SEED (2016).