Doris Wishman’s Another Day, Another Man screens at the BFI Southbank on Wednesday, introduced by Elena Gorfinkel, as part of season Trash! The Wildest Films You’ve Ever Seen
Monday, the UK Premiere of a new 4K restoration of Jocelyne Saab’s The Razor’s Edge, a sensual and strange exemplar of “activist experimental cinema,” is at BFI Southbank, with a recorded introduction by Mathilde Rouxel. Mark Jenkin’s Bait screens at Genesis. The Baby is followed by the Carol Kane-starring The Mafu Cage — both introduced by programmer Maria de Paul-Vazquez — at The Nickel. Contemporary queer classic The Handmaiden plays at The Arzner as part of its Lesbian Visibility Week programming. Jean Negulesco’s Three Coins in the Fountain is the Regent Street Cinema Classic Matinee.
Tuesday, Rio Forever, a six-month celebration of fifty years of The Rio being run by and for its community, opens with Purple Rain, presented by Never Watching Movies and programmer Kulraj Phullar. At The Garden Cinema, there’s more birthday celebrations in the form of a centenary screening of Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed, accompanied by a live score by mutterichbindoom. Plan 9 from Outer Space screens from a new BFI National Archive print in NFT1, as part of the season Trash! The Wildest Films You’ve Ever Seen. The Nickel’s Punk at 50! Season continues with Paul Morrissey’s Madame Wang’s, shown from VHS and introduced by programmer and filmmaker Craig Williams.
Wednesday, Doris Wishman’s Another Day, Another Man and Kalman’s Elevator Girls in Bondage is introduced by scholar and critic Elena Gorfinkel at BFI Southbank. Not By Lynch continues at The Cinema Museum with Celine and Julie Go Boating. At The Nickel, Deleted Scenes presents a Waters double bill of Cecil B. Demented, followed by Polyester. Steve Mcqueen’s Hunger is at Rich Mix. TRANSMISSIONS presents Gia (from a VHS tape) in the basement of Dalston Superstore.
Thursday, at the Prince Charles Lost Reels has a screening of Lianna, John Sayles’ queer classic, on 35mm, followed by a Q&A with Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi. Fearless, Peter Weir’s “deeply affecting existential drama” is at BFI Southbank, featuring a recorded intro by Jeff Bridges. Cine-Real are showing High Anxiety on 16mm at The Castle Cinema. Time Capsule: The Films of Jia Zhangke continues at The Garden Cinema with his latest Caught by the Tides. At the Genesis, Bloody Mary Film Club latest offering is Thelma and Louise. At The Nickel there’s a chance to see John Dahl’s neo-noir The Last Seduction. Those who caught the Kuchar bug at the BFI season can catch It Came From Kuchar, Jennifer Kroot’s loving documentary on the filmmaking legend at The Rio, shown by Pink Palace. The Transparent “I”: Authority and Authorship in Anthropological Filmmaking, a programme of reflexive ethnographic filmmaking, curated by KONTEKST Collective, is at The Cinema Museum, followed by a panel with Arti Siudem, Ishy Pryce-Parchment and Sarah Khan, moderated by Goldsmiths Lee Douglas.
Friday, short Lot in Sodom precedes Salome, Charles Bryant and All Nazimoma’s “hyper-stylised” Art Nouveau adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play, at Finch Community Cinema, presented and introduced by Films Are Gay! programmer Erik Anderson Scott. The Rio’s birthday festivities continue with Orlando, followed by a Q&A with director Sally Potter; later Category H’s after-dark events return with a programme celebrating the “hazy, low budget and strange,” featuring Attack of the 50ft Woman followed by Haunted Indiana. The Lady in Red, the Corman-produced pulp romance, starring Pamela Sue Martin, is at The Nickel. Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice is at the Barbican as part of Cold War Visions. Sadie Mckee is introduced by Women and Cocaine at The Cinema Museum. Juraj Herz’s surrealist horror The Cremator shows at Prince Charles.
Saturday, the Barbican’s Chronic Youth Film Festival kicks off with Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza, followed by a Shorts Programme, before a chance to see a new 4k restoration of Rose Troche’s “laidback snapshot” of lesbian community and romance, Go Fish, alongside Cheryl Dunye’s Greetings from Africa. I Like Killing Flies, an “underseen gem of a documentary” on Kenny Shopsin, the curmudgeony proprietor and chef of the New York deli restaurant is at Leytonstone’s Good Shepherd Studios. Manhattan Murder Mystery is on 35mm at The David Lean Cinema. Peter Weir’s The Plumber is at BFI Southbank. Star 80 plays at The Nickel. The incomparable Speed Racer is on 35mm at the Prince Charles. At the Rio, Varda Film Club and La Cinemaiz present Murs Murs — later Dream Emulator Film Club promise a “collectively induced digital acid trip” with their latest late night happening/audio-visual experience, Ego Death: An LSD Dream Emulator Rave.
Sunday, Worm, a British folk-horror inflected “with the textures of the digital age,” introduced by director Ned Caderni and preceded by short Retrograde Premonition at The Cinema Museum. Bamboozled at The Victoria Dalston, marking 25 years since its UK release — introduced by UEL’s Julian Alexander, whose short, Whiteface, will screen beforehand. Chronic Youth Festival at the Barbican, continues with Nguyen Trinh Thi’s Fifth Cinema, an interrogation into “the limits of filmic representation,” followed by Supermen of Malegaon and short Afronauts, before the UK premiere of Herry Hanson’s Puppygirl closes things out. Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers is at the BFI Southbank, as part of The Cinematic Life of Boxing. Une Parisienne is the latest offering from Cine Lumière’s Bardot season. The Horse Hospital’s series of underground queer cinema comes to a close with Nitrate Kisses accompanied by Lot in Sodom.
Until next time.