THE BALLY #6: Coming attractions you must not miss

Welcome to the next edition of THE BALLY, our eNEWS bulletin where the barkers at RADIANT CIRCUS voice our enthusiasm for London’s coming attractions.

You’ll find our handpicked highlights for the week ahead as well as news of events that haven’t yet featured in our regular listings. You can also catch up with new writing about London’s alternative cinema scene at www.radiantcircus.com.

> What are you going to see?

Our featured attraction of the month is FANTASTIQUE: THE DREAM WORLDS OF FRENCH CINEMA (OCT to NOV) at BFI Southbank, but we also love the epic chills of HORROROCTOBER at The Prince Charles – “A month of screams, chills, blood and guts!” – complete with several all-nighters, double bills and original format screenings.

Highlights in the coming week include several all-nighters (26 to 28 OCT) and extended versions of horror classics (complete with a special Skype-in Q&A from William Friedkin). BFI London Film Festival sensation MANDY continues to sell out (your best bet is to bunk off work and grab a daytime screening – just don’t tell your boss we told you so…).

> Full details in our monthly roundup, HERE.

One of our ambitions at RADIANT CIRCUS is to lure more movie goers away from the mainstream and into the dark embrace of adventurous moving pictures. We also like to put our efforts into backing indie venues, programmers and filmmakers.

The idea of wrapping artist film and video around a loved – but should be much better known! – horror title for Halloween therefore gets our clown faces smiling.

Our featured attraction of the week is Sick Society’s presentation of SOCIETY at Close-Up (29 OCT 20:15). Brian Yuzna’s 1989 shunt-fest will screen with a bunch of new artist films curated by Dean Kenning, Liam Scully and Vanessa Scully.

> Book HERE.

Now that the BFI London Film Festival is over for another year, it’s easy to feel pangs of withdrawal. Don’t worry, we crawl London’s indie cinema scene for its many festivals and list everything we can find. Here’s our (tentative!) list of the festivals projecting this week:

• 70 Years Of Israeli Cinema (25 to 28 OCT – Free!).
• Doc’n Roll Film Festival (01 to 18 NOV).
• London East Asia Film Festival (25 OCT to 04 NOV).
• London Korean Film Festival (01 to 25 NOV).
• LSF Micro Film Festival (28 OCT).
• The Misty Moon International Film Festival (27 OCT).
• UK Iranian Film Festival (26 OCT to 05 NOV).

Featured image: MICROHABITAT at Picturehouse Central, part of Korean Film Festival (01 NOV).

THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI + LIVE SCORE by The Cabinet of Living Cinema at LSO St Luke’s (26 OCT 19:30):

• Nomad Cinema presents: At a local carnival in a small German Town, hypnotist Dr. Caligari presents the somnambulist Cesare, who can purportedly predict the future of curious fairgoers. But at night, the doctor wakes Cesare from his sleep to enact his evil bidding…

> Find more films in London today HERE.

POSSUM + Q&A with director Matthew Holness at ArtHouse Crouch End (27 OCT 18:00):

• Together with Possum, a hideous hand-puppet, disgraced puppeteer Philip returns to his childhood home. Staying with his cruel stepfather, Maurice, Philip soon discovers that ridding himself of Possum is no easy task. A truly creepy British horror from the visionary mind behind GARTH MERENGHI’S DARKPLACE. POSSUM enjoys a grind show run at the same venue (26 OCT to 01 NOV).

> Find more films in London today HERE.

SPARKLE 16mm + Samira Ahmed In Conversation at The Cinema Museum (28 OCT 15:00):

• The Celluloid Sorceress presents: Before DREAMGIRLS (2006) there was SPARKLE (1976). A very rare screening of the cult musical based on stories of Motown and The Supremes, written by Joel Schumacher with songs and music by Curtis Mayfield. A Save the Cinema Museum fundraiser: use exclusive RADIANT CIRCUS discount voucher code “sparkle” when booking.

> Find more films in London today HERE.

Sick Monday: SOCIETY at Close-Up (29 OCT 20:15):

• Sick Monday presents: Six newly commissioned short video works followed by Brian Yuzna’s cult classic SOCIETY. Featuring new works by Anita Delaney, Anne Kathrine Bindesbøll & Ava Fersi, Dave Burrows, Noor Afshan Mirza & Brad Butler, Birgit Ludwig, and Vanessa Scully.

> Find more films in London today HERE.

DER GOLEM + LIVE SCORE by HarmonieBand at Rich Mix (30 OCT 19:30):

• A restored silent-movie masterpiece gets a stunning new live soundtrack by specialists HarmonieBand: “An enduring example of German Expressionist horror” – Film 4.

> Find more films in London today HERE.

METROPOLIS (1927) + LIVE ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENT by Henry Tozer at St Barnabas Church (31 OCT 20:00):

• Pitshanger Pictures presents: A chance to see one of the greatest classic silent movies ever made. Inspiration for generations of sci fi and horror films as well as it simply being a fantastic spectacle. Pitshanger will be showing it in the church with live organ accompaniment in a marathon performance by Henry Tozer.

> Find more films in London today HERE.

Armistice: MAUDITE SOIT LA GUERRE + LIVE SCORE played by London Sinfonietta at Queen Elizabeth Hall (01 NOV 19:30):

• Nearly 100 years after its release, an early pacifist film – released in 1914 just one month before the outbreak of the First World War – is brought to life with a score by Olga Neuwirth.

> Find more films in London today HERE.

MAMA COLONEL at CentrE17 (02 NOV 19:15):

• Last Frame Club presents: Colonel Honorine Manyole, commonly known as ‘Mama Colonel’, works for the Congolese police force and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. This film addresses the issue of violence towards women and children in the DRC and the difficulty of overcoming the past war.

> More info & tickets HERE.

ALIPATO: THE VERY BRIEF LIFE OF AN EMBER + RECORDED Q&A with director Khavn De La Cruz at Genesis Cinema (05 NOV 18:30):

Filikino presents: Neon lights bathe this dystopian vision of Manila in deceptively playful colours. It is 2025 and Manila, now Mondo Manila, has grown into a hectic beast. In the belly of her slums two rival gangs plan a bank heist.

> Visit Genesis Cinema for more info.

New attractions at www.radiantcircus.com include:

• A writeup of DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME at The Cinema Museum [18.10.18]
• Our Halloween ? SCREAM GUIDE ?, London’s most comprehensive scream listings.
• The start of our new SCREEN DIARY so that you can follow us as we blog our way around London’s indie screens.

Get every SCREEN GUIDE delivered directly to your inbox – plus other great rewards – with a low-cost RADIANT CIRCUS monthly membership, available exclusively at Patreon.

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