[14 to 20 FEB]: Our Featured Attraction of the week is always the event we’d most like to be at. Here’s our view of the unmissable indie film events in London this week. Find full event listings in our comprehensive SCREEN GUIDE.

By RADIANT CIRCUS

Twitter @radiantcircus | Instagram @radiantcircus

Depending upon how you regard Valentine’s Day, the start of this screen week is either one to love or loathe… Either way, there are more than enough great screen events for you to embrace and/or escape that ole devil. Begin by heading to Genesis Cinema for The Celluloid Sorceress’ exclusive revival of GHOST on 35mm, or a special preview of Céline Sciamma’s PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE from Fringe! and Birds’ Eye View. For those after something, well, a little rougher, try POSSESSION at The Lexi or JE T’AIME, MOI NON PLUS at Barbican (all 14 FEB – full details here).

Looking further ahead, there are (or at least were…) two chances on Wednesday to see Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING. Ciné-Real Film Club’s 16mm projection at The Castle Cinema is currently looking SOLD OUT! (don’t worry, there’s another chance on 23 FEB), so we wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the programme from Kennington Noir at The Cinema Museum (19 FEB).

Taking that as our excuse to dive into genre cinema (as if we need one), there’s another arterial spray of great horror shows this week with a double bill of Crawling Intruders from World Wide Weird! at The King & Queen (15 FEB), COME TO DADDY with intro from FrightFest’s Alan Jones at The Prince Charles (17 FEB), and Japanese zombie breakthrough movie-within-a-movie, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD at the normally polite Richmond Film Society (18 FEB).

As February is LGBT History Month, there are plenty of queer screens too. We like the look of The New Black’s presentation of HUSTLERS complete with live pole dancing at Picturehouse Stratford East, and VITA & VIRGINIA at Wimbledon Film Club (both 18 FEB). And they don’t come much queerer than a 35th Anniversary screening of Paul Schrader’s biopic, MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS at Deptford Cinema (17 FEB). BFI’s Experimenta Salon is discussing a 16mm queer gem that has been heavily censored across its history, Jean Genet’s sexually explicit, UN CHANT D’AMOUR (19 FEB).

Of course, attacks on creative expression come in many guises. Beloved undergound venue The Horse Hospital has been threatened before by the rising tide of gentrification and is once again in serious risk of closing for good (from a 333% rent rise). Join the protest with an evening of clips about London and its landlord problem (15 FEB).

Our featured attraction of the week memorialises filmmakers who have paid a horrific price for their freedom of expression. YAMA – ATTACK TO ATTACK was a film that sought to liberate workers from the yoke of criminal gangs. Both of its directors were murdered by Japanese yakuza as a result of its making. The finally finished film screens with a content warning at Close-Up (20 FEB).

See you in darkness…

Richard – Barker-In-Chief, RADIANT CIRCUS

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> FIND EVERYTHING in our weekly screen digest [14 to 20 FEB].

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*THE SMALL PRINT: As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any errors. Updates & corrections will be made to the online version. Event dates/times are subject to change by the venue/organiser. We try to only list events you can book for at the time of posting: however, some events may still be sold out. Please click quickly! We don’t filter by age/certification: all readers & subscribers should be 18+.