NOW SHOWING: LONDON SCREEN GUIDE w/c 23.06.17

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

This week, you can seek shelter from the storm with two excellent short film seasons. Ciné Lumière’s LA FÊTE DU CINÉMA offers up new French films for a tempting ticket price of £5. Regent Street Cinema’s RIGHTS & MIGHT FESTIVAL tells the stories of people that cross borders in the hope of safety and dignity.

Our featured film of the week is social housing documentary DISPOSSESSION: THE GREAT SOCIAL HOUSING SWINDLE. Because some issues just need sorting.

FRIDAY 23 JUNE 2017, 20:40, BFI

THE CINEMA TRAVELLERS screens as part of London Indian Film Festival. Even though the co-directors of this 2016 documentary about India’s last travelling cinemas can no longer make the Q&A session, it’s a beauty well worth seeing. Perhaps more than any film this week, it will remind you of why the movies matter.

Looking for an alternative? JOHOGOI AIYY (JOHOGOI GOD) (18:30) – a film about the Yakut people celebrating their summer festival with prayers, singing, dancing and horse racing – gets its UK premier at Arthouse Crouch End. Part of Origins: Festival of First Nations (below).

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BLOOD RAGE screens at Prince Charles Cinema as part of their ’80s SLASH-A-THON (24 JUNE).

SATURDAY 24 JUNE 2017, 21:30, PRINCE CHARLES CINEMA

’80s SUMMER CAMP SLASH-A-THON! (21:30 to 06:00 approx) gives you a chance to spend a night with the lovely devotees of movie mayhem at Arrow Video. Featured films are THE BURNING, MADMAN, THE MUTILATOR, BLOOD RAGE & ‘MYSTERY FILM’ (a future release from the Arrow slate…). Arrow are promising “a full night of splatterific gore, inventive deaths, sexy jacuzzi scenes and camp hijinks” along with promos, pranks and special guests.

Looking for an alternative? East End Film Festival (below) hosts PSYCHE TROPES: A CREAK IN TIME (St John, Bethnal Green, 20:00), “an evening of mind bending cinematic visuals, analogue projection and sound”.

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Tanya Tagaq sings an improvised score to NANOOK OF THE NORTH for the Origins: Festival of First Nations closing night gala (25 JUNE, 20:00).

SUNDAY 25 JUNE 2017, VARIOUS

One Sunday, two unmissable live scores…

If you’ve fallen in love with the gentle films of Yasujirô Ozu (his Noriko Trilogy concludes with TOKYO STORY at Close-Up, 23 JUNE), then why not try one of the few surviving examples of his early silent films? I WAS BORN, BUT… (16:00) gets not one but two live accompaniments at Barbican, with a piano score and Benshi narration. For the uninitiated, Benshi performers “stood to the side of the screen and… often spoke for the characters on-screen and played multiple roles” (wikipedia).

Origins: Festival of First Nations stages Closing Night Concert TANYA TAGAQ – NANOOK OF THE NORTH (20:00) at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. “Throat singer and tour-de-force vocalist” Tanya Tagaq will perform a live, improvised score to Robert J Flaherty’s dodgy (by modern standards…) yet genre-defining 1922 documentary.

Looking for an alternative? Moth Club hosts a Twin Peaks double bill with TWIN PEAKS: THE MISSING PIECES (15:00) giving you all the edited-out odds and sods from TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (19:00).

MONDAY 26 JUNE 2017, 19:00, ARTHOUSE CROUCH END

Directed by Paul Sng and featuring the voice of Maxine Peake, DISPOSSESSION: THE GREAT SOCIAL HOUING SWINDLE “is the story of people fighting for their communities, of people who know the difference between a house and a home, and who believe that housing is a human right, not an expensive luxury”.

Looking for an alternative? Lexi Cinema hosts THE HOLY GIRL (aka La niña santa) + GIRL POWER (18:30) including an intro from Sophie Mayer. This pairing + intro – “sounding out the revolutionary power of girls” – can also be seen at Barbican as part of their short season, Being Ruby Rich (25 JUNE, 18:00).

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NOCTURAMA screens at Cine Lumiere (27 JUNE, 20:40).

TUESDAY 27 JUNE 2017, 18:30 & 20:40, CINÉ LUMIÈRE

One festival, two thrilling new French Films…

LA JEUNE FILLE SANS MAINS (18:30) is a very rare solo effort; an animated feature written, directed, edited and animated by just one man, Sébastien Laudenbach. Based on a tale by the brothers Grimm, it’s a story of the devil, a miller living in dire straits and his courageous daughter.

Described by The Guardian as “too crafty to ignore, but too obnoxious to embrace“,  NOCTURAMA (20:40) – a bold recommendation if there ever was one – is a controversial study of youthful insurgence in Paris.

Both films screen as part of Ciné Lumière’s LA FETE DU CINEMA season (below).

Looking for an alternative? Another French beauty, TOMBOY (20:00) – about gender identity and childhood – screens at Deptford Cinema as part of their DCQ strand. Elsewhere, The Institute of Light invites you back to Film School with a screening and feminist film theory inspired discussion of ALIEN (19:15).

WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017, 19:00, FRONTLINE CLUB

Frontline Club screens TRANSGENDER SHORT FILM SCREENING in support of LGBT Pride Month. The films will be followed by a Q&A with both directors, Andy Hayward (THE TRANS SEX WORKERS OF ISTANBUL) and Olivia Crellin (SUNUNU: THE REVOLUTION OF LOVE).

Looking for an alternative? Close-Up Film Centre with Carroll / Fletcher Onscreen presents an evening of short films by IAN BOURN: SELF PORTRAITS AND OTHER FICTIONS (19:30). The evening includes a reading from Bourn’s PLACEMENT series and the artist will discuss his work with Felicity Sparrow after the screening. The event is accompanied by films available to view and download at www.carrollfletcheronscreen.com.

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BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK screens at Deptford Cinema (29 JUNE, 20:00).

THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017, 18:30, BARBICAN

THE BOOK OF GABRIELLE + LIVE DRAWING SHOW by Lisa Gornick looks like an interesting experiment. Described by Barbican as “live performance meets feature film meets actual book”, it almost sounds too much to juggle…

Looking for an alternative? BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK (20:00) screens at Deptford Cinema. This acclaimed Thai film “intricately weaves together notions of memory, the political and cinematic, offering a bold exploration into film the possibilities of cinema itself”.


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STRONG ISLAND screens at Barbican (24 JUNE, 18:00).

FESTIVALS / SEASONS / TALKS

Barbican continues BEING RUBY RICH until 25 JUNE. Very recent winner of the Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2017, STRONG ISLAND, gets its London premier (24 JUNE, 18:00).

BFI continues their DUSTIN HOFFMAN and UNBOUND: VISIONS OF THE BLACK FEMININE seasons.

Ciné Lumière opens LA FETE DU CINEMA (25 to 28 JUNE) celebrating new French films with fabulous £5 tickets for all screenings.

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DOUBLE BLIND (NO SEX LAST NIGHT) screens at Close-Up (24 JUNE, 19:30).

Close-Up completes their screening of Yasujirō Ozu: Noriko Trilogy with TOKYO STORY (23 JUNE, 19:30). Their ON THE ROAD season continues with DOUBLE BLIND (NO SEX LAST NIGHT) (24 JUNE, 19:30), LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA + WHICH WAY TO CA (25 JUNE, 19:30) and BADLANDS (26 JUNE, 19:30)

East End Film Festival continues until 2 JULY. Why not try state of the divided nation doc BREXITANNIA (23 JUNE, 18:30), evening of shorts GENERATION GAP (24 JUNE, 18:45) or “combination of film, music and poetry” MY NAME IS SWAN (25 JUNE, 17:00)?

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MOONLIGHT screens at House of Vans (25 JUNE, 14:00 & 16:00).

House of Vans continues free “in case you missed it” screenings in the recently refurbished cinema with MOONLIGHT (25 JUNE, 14:00 & 16:00). There’s also a free screening of music doc OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL (29 JUNE, 19:30).

London Indian Film Festival continues with too many great screenings with Q&As with cast and crews to list here. Seriously, just go…

Origins: Festival of First Nations continues across London until 25 JUNE.

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THE HUMAN CARGO screens at Regent Street Cinema (25 JUNE, 18:00).

And finally…

Rights & Might Film Festival runs for two days (24 to 25 JUNE) at Regent Street Cinema, bringing together “a collection of films about the varied experiences of people crossing continents and borders in search of peace, safety and a dignified life”.


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: DISPOSSESSION: THE GREAT SOCIAL HOUSING SWINDLE (2017).