THE BALLY #158: What to see in London this week [17 to 23 JUN 2022]

Welcome to THE BALLY where we help you find what to see in London this week across DIY, indie & alternative cinema events, online, outdoors & in venues.

By RADIANT CIRCUS // Twitter @radiantcircus / Instagram @radiantcircus

Welcome to another screen week!

In what is likely to be a mixture of good news covering up some bad, two cinemas I’ve spotted have discounted their ticket prices, with The Garden Cinema reducing all weekday matinees to £5 and Curzon Cinemas reducing ‘off-peak’ pricing across their chain. Quite how the cost-of-living crisis will affect the cinema industry (just when it was starting to rebuild after the pandemic…) will be the topic of future posts I’m sure…

This week’s special events start with Women & Cocaine’s celebration of Katharine Hepburn at The Cinema Museum with LITTLE WOMEN, and Birkbeck Cinema hosts the first of two events in their Onat Kutlar: Cinema is a Feast programme (all 17 JUN). On Saturday, The Brixton Project celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Perry Henzell’s THE HARDER THEY COME with a special event to launch Lambeth’s Windrush celebrations (18 JUN). That event is currently looking SOLD OUT, but fortunately there are free encore screening across the borough over the following few days (check daily listings for details). On Sunday, SUPAKINO returns to the Rio with another edition of his Bombay Mix (AFTER HOURS + JAGTE RAHO), whilst Bohemia Media continue their Sunday screenings at The Apple Tree with PRINCESS OF THE ROW (both 19 JUN).

You can start your actual week (depending on your shift patterns…) by selecting from a trio of screenings for Refugee Week at The Lexi (MIDNIGHT TRAVELLER), Barbican (SIMPLE AS WATER), and Ciné Lumière (SHELTER WITHOUT SHELTER) on Monday (20 JUN). Then, Deeper Into Movies has a special free screening of ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS which includes a Q&A at TT Liquor, Tufnell Park Film Club presents THE THIN MAN at The Lord Palmerston, and those wonderful podcast people at Evolution of Horror go epic with a very special celebratory screening and podcast recording for NOSFERATU at Regent Street Cinema that utilises their pop-up organ… (all 21 JUN). 

Wednesday sees one of those city-wide special events – this time GEORGE MICHAEL FREEDOM UNCUT – which you can catch at many of your favourite indies (see daily listings for venue details). If you like your queer pop divas to be of a rather different shape, then maybe the Pink Palace presentation of I AM DIVINE in the basement bar at the Rio might be more your cup of tea (both 22 JUN).* Given that MUBI’s party night screening of QUERELLE with Fringe! and Queer House Party is currently looking SOLD OUT (still some tickets left for the after party, which you can also stream…), I have no hesitation in referring you to the first of two 16mm screenings of THE MALTESE FALCON by Ciné-Real 16mm Film Club at The Castle Cinema (all 23 JUN).

In this week’s rep season and festival scene, my Featured Attraction of the Month, THE WAVE: ITALIAN WOMEN FILMMAKERS, continues at Ciné Lumière, and there are opening nights for London Bengali Film Festival (21 to 26 JUN) and London Indian Film Festival (23 JUN to 05 JUL). If one night stands are more your thing, Malarkey Film Festival: Gap The Mind and Oska Bright Film Festival 2022: Queer Freedom both screen on 23 JUN.

In this week’s new releases, I’ve highlighted Scott Derrickson’s horror show THE BLACK PHONE, François Ozon’s EVERYTHING WENT FINE, and Sophie Hyde’s GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE. There are a lot of smaller releases and exclusives this week, so be sure to scroll all the way down.

I’ve chosen Oska Bright Film Festival 2022: Queer Freedom short film programme at Barbican (23 JUN) as my Featured Attraction of the Week. Because it looks great, it’s Pride Month, and I very rarely (never?) get a chance to profile films by and about people with learning disabilities on these pages. 

See you in the darkness, and stay cool.

Richard // RADIANT CIRCUS

*If you’re after something a little different, I continue my summer season of BAR TRASH screenings at Genesis Cinema with HG Lewis’ SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS on Wednesday 22 June at 20:30. I’ll be on stage hosting in my usual derpy way, there’ll be prize giveaways and an intermission to allow you to recharge your glasses… Tickets just £1.

Oska Bright Film Festival 2022: Queer Freedom short film programme at Barbican (23 JUN 18:30 – Relaxed Screening).

“In this selection of films from the 2022 and 2019 Queer Freedom programmes curated for the Oska Bright Film Festival, we’ll explore a rich variety of queer stories from around the world.”

“From enriching encounters with drag queens to touching animated shorts, from quirky melodramas told entirely through feet to a gay teen romance sure to appeal to anyone who has been falling in love with TV series Heartstopper, these films, some delightful, some experimental and some very funny, offer unique representations of queerness and disability.” (Oska Bright)

Featured image: LOVING OUR LANGUAGE – PRIDE IN DISABILITY CULTURE dir Jen Sungshine & David Ng, 2019.

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Full daily listings in this week’s SCREEN GUIDE.

THE WAVE: ITALIAN WOMEN FILMMAKERS at Ciné Lumière

“If only a handful of women reached international recognition in the twentieth century, a new ‘wave’ of Italian female directors has started to garner prestigious awards from major film festivals in the past decade. The Wave is a festival aiming to showcase the outstanding fiction and documentary films of directors such as Alice Rohrwacher, Emma Dante or Chiara Bellosi, along with tributes to the pioneers who paved the way and an homage to the late actor Monica Vitti, the ‘Queen of Italian cinema’.”

• Includes (check venue for listings): COSMONAUT d. Susanna Nicchiarelli, 2008 + Q&A with the director + Short: LIVE BAIT (17 JUN 18:20); A STREET IN PALERMO aka Via Castellana Bandiera d. Emma Dante, 2013 + Short: NEW NEIGHBOURS (17 JUN 20:40); FLESH OUT aka Il corpo della sposa d. Michela Occhipinti, 2019 + Q&A with the director + Short: SUGARLOVE (18 JUN 14:30); NORMAL d. Adele Tulli, 2019 + Short: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO DARWIN? (18 JUN 17:00); MATERNAL aka Hogar d. Maura Delpero, 2019 + Short: FINE DUST (18 JUN 19:00); THE LIZARDS 4K Restoration aka I Basilischi d. Lina Wertmüller, 1963 (18 JUN 20:30); SWORN VIRGIN aka Vergine Giurata d. Laura Bispuri, 2015 + Short: TOILETS (19 JUN 17:00); DUCK IN ORANGE SAUCE aka L’anatra all’Arancia d. Luciano Salce, 1975 + Intro by Prof. Richard Dyer (19 JUN 14:00).

More rep seasons listed in this week’s SCREEN GUIDE.

• Barnes Film Festival (16 to 22 JUN).
• London Bengali Film Festival (21 to 26 JUN).
• London Indian Film Festival (23 JUN to 05 JUL).
• Malarkey Film Festival: Gap The Mind (23 JUN).
• Oska Bright Film Festival 2022: Queer Freedom (23 JUN).
• RAFT Festival (10 JUN to 08 JUL).
• The Wave: Italian Women Filmmakers (15 to 19 JUN).

More new releases in this week’s SCREEN GUIDE.

• 
  Sine Screen presents Vulnerable Histories at Close-Up & The Garden Cinema (19 to 26 AUG 2023)
• 
  Lost Reels presents 16mm & 35mm screenings at The Cinema Museum & ICA (19 & 31 AUG 2023)
• 
  The Duke Mitchell Film Club presents DukeFest 2023: A Brave New World (13 to 16 AUG 2023)
• 
  Cinema Mentiré launches with OLHAR PERIFERICO season (AUG 2023)

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*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. //.