Press room

Barbican Cinemas:

• Members’ Preview: The Father
• Chronic Youth 2021: Lisbon Beat + introduction by co-director
  Rita Maia
• Return to the City: a season re-discovering cities across the world, from a diverse range of filmmakers
• New East Cinema: Walls Remember: Shorts Compilation + pre-recorded ScreenTal
• Shiva Baby + Recorded Q&A
• Preview: The Filmmaker’s House + ScreenTalk with director Marc Isaacs and writer Adam Ganz
• The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival
• Family Film Club

Barbican Cinema On Demand

• New Releases: the documentary features The 8th + Ahead of
  the Curve
• Chronic Youth 2021: Lisbon Beat + Introduction by co-director Rita Maia
• New East Cinema: Walls Remember: Shorts Compilation +
  pre-recorded ScreenTalk

The Barbican is pleased to present a rich and diverse programme in June, with something for all cinematic tastes. Highlights include Return to the City, a season of films re-discovering cities from around the world; a Members’ preview of The Father (starring the Academy Award winning Anthony Hopkins and Oliva Colman); a screening of the exuberant documentary Lisbon Beat (part of Chronic Youth 2021) and introduction by co-director Rita Maia; The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival; New East Cinema’s Walls Remember, a shorts compilation of films from East Europe and Central Asia with a pre-recorded ScreenTalk; a preview of The Filmmaker’s House and ScreenTalk with director Marc Isaacs and writer Adam Ganz; a screening of Shiva Baby and the return of Family Film Club to the big screen.

Barbican Cinema On Demand continues to host thought-provoking content, allowing more ways for the public to engage with the Barbican programme. Highlights this month include two trailblazing documentaries about the fight for women’s equality: The 8th, about the 2018 pro-choice referendum in Ireland; and Ahead of the Curve, about the creation of Curve, the best-selling lesbian magazine ever published.

Barbican Cinemas:

Members’ Preview: The Father (12A)
UK/France 2020, Dir Florian Zeller, 96 min
Tue 1 Jun 6.05pm, Barbican Cinema 2

Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins plays the eponymous role of a mischievous and highly independent man who, as he ages, refuses all assistance from his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman).

Yet, such help has become essential following Anne’s decision to move to Paris with her partner. As Anne’s father tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.

Chronic Youth 2021: Lisbon Beat (15*) + introduction by co-director
Rita Maia
Portugal 2019, Dir Rita Maia + Vasco Viana, 75 min
Thu 3 Jun 8.45pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Then available on Barbican Cinema On Demand: 4-30 Jun

In June Chronic Youth 2021 closes with Lisbon Beat (2019, Dir Rita Maia + Vasco Viana), an exuberant documentary portrait of a city and its musicians, which highlights the Afro-Portuguese music scene thriving on the outskirts of Lisbon.

The Cinema 1 screening on Thu 3 June will be introduced by the co-director, the London based, Lisbon born DJ Rita Maia; and a celebration of this music will continue via a live-stream online DJ session (led by Rita Maia), on Friday 4 June at 9pm.

In Lisbon Beat cinematographer Vasco Viana and Rita Maia depict a vibrant community of musicians and producers from diverse backgrounds, each establishing their relationship to this complex city. Among many other notable figures, the film features DJ Nigga Fox.

Through sharing these stories, the film opens up an important discussion on Afro-Portuguese cultural contributions, and how music can help shape a community.

For further information:
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/chronic-youth-2021-lisbon-beat

To view the full Chronic Youth 2021 press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/chronic-youth-2021-family-matter

Return to the City
Tue 8 – Sun 27 June 2021, Barbican Cinema 1

After many months of worldwide lockdown leaving normally bustling city streets deserted, the Barbican Cinema’s programme Return to the City – screening in Cinema 1 throughout June – hails the return of these vital spaces and communities.

With a diversity of storytellers as our big-screen guide, the films in this programme re-discover some of our great international cities including Paris, Cairo, Lima, New York, Las Vegas and Kaili in South East China – some celebrate the majesty and excitement of the metropolis, while others consider the prejudices faced by marginalised communities within the city.

The season opens with an opportunity to soak in the sights, sounds and rhythms of 1950s New Yorkers going about their lives in the UK premiere of Manfred Kirchheimer’s Free Time,(USA 1960/2020); here the filmmaker has meticulously restored and constructed the 16mm black- and-white footage that he and Walter Hess shot in New York between 1958 and 1960. This screening will be introduced by visual artist and writer Will Jennings.

Fast forward to present day, the sounds of punk, psychedelia and experimental electronica are the backdrop for Ximena Valdivia and Dana Bonilla’s Lima Screams (Peru, 2018), an ecstatic and visually thrilling journey through Lima, where marginalised communities make beautiful music, and political protests are backed by fierce electronic sounds.

Introduced by writer and curator Awa Konaté, Nationalité: Immigré (France 1975) by Mauritanian filmmaker Sidney Sokhona, blends fiction with documentary in a staggering and radical account of African migrants at the margins of Parisian society in the 1970s.

Cairo Station (Egypt 1958), directed by and starring Youssef Chahine, blends melodrama, neorealism and thriller conventions to tell an unforgettable, disturbing story of love and madness set in Cairo’s train station; Nina Menkes’ Queen of Diamonds (US 1991) offers a glimpse of Las Vegas seen through the eyes of a casino croupier, a place of garish, windowless interiors, but also huge blue skies and desolate desertscapes; and in Bi Gan’s sensuous, dream-like drama Long Day’s Journey into Night (China/France 2018) set in Kaili in South East China, a labyrinthine cityscape is captured in single, hour-long, gravity-defying take – a must-see on the big screen in 3D.

For further information:
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/series/return-to-the-city

To view the full press release:
https://www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/return-to-the-city

New East Cinema: Walls Remember: Shorts Compilation (15*)
+ pre-recorded ScreenTalk
Wed 9 Jun 2021, 6.00 pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Then available on Barbican Cinema On Demand: 10 Jun–31 Jul

Walls Remember: Shorts Compilation is a collection short films - from Latvia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kazakhstan - that consider the relationship between memory and space.

These five diverse, often very beautiful shorts, explore the relationship between memories, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes traumatic, and personal spaces from the past, in a post-communist and post-Soviet context. This screening will be followed by a pre-recorded ScreenTalk (speakers to be announced).

Shiva Baby (#) + Recorded ScreenTalk
USA/ Canada 2020, Dir Emma Seligman, 77min
Wed 9 Jun 2021, 6.00 pm, Barbican Cinema 2

Shiva Baby is a darkly playful comedy of unease about a young bisexual woman grappling with tradition and independence over the course of one climactic day -long shiva, a Jewish gathering of friends and family during a time of mourning. A highlight of 2020’s Toronto International Film Festival and SXSW, this acclaimed feature debut from writer-director Emma Seligman is bold and modern filmmaking at its most daring.

Preview: The Filmmaker’s House (12A) + Screentalk with director
Marc Isaacs and writer Adam Ganz. Hosted by Ben Nicholson
UK 2020, Dir Marc Isaacs, 76 min
Thu 17 Jun 6pm, Barbican Cinema 1

When Isaacs is told his next film must be about sex, crime or celebrity to get funded, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He begins shooting a film in his home, with people connected to his own life becoming its stars: the two English builders employed to replace his fence; his Pakistani neighbour, with whom he temporarily shares a garden; and the filmmaker’s Colombian cleaner, who is charmed by all who visit.

Blending documentary and fiction, The Filmmaker’s House is laced with wry humour, emotional intensity and a radical curiosity, resulting in a film that is both a meditation on, and a rebellion against, the act of filmmaking itself.

The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival
Fri 25 – Wed 30 Jun, Barbican Cinema 1

The Barbican is pleased to welcome back the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival for an exclusive series of screenings.

As part of LIFF's focus this year on celebrating British Asian talent, the festival and Barbican are delighted to offer a very rare showing of the documentaries of iconic filmmaker and activist Pratibha Parmar.

The programmes: British Asians - The Underground Generations and Pratibha Parmar: Asian Artists in Emergence showcase her earlier works from the 1980s and 90s; these explore the state of the nation, emerging British Asian identities, and a celebration of emerging new arts, culture, often set in times of great adversity. Pratibha Parmar will also be in attendance for a Q&A with guests.

Further highlights include a screening of Aise Hee (Just Like That) (India 2020 Dir Kislay), an inspiring tale of an older woman challenging society's narrow expectations of her; and New Brit-Asian Shorts + ScreenTalk, from award-winning dramas to insightful docs, this is a showcase of exciting and diverse emerging British Asian filmmaking talent.

Family Film Club
Every Saturday 11am & 12pm/12.30pm, Barbican Cinemas 2&3

Barbican Cinema is delighted to welcome back Family Film Club in June and offers an array of contemporary and classic titles to entice families back to the big screen.

Highlights include the Oscar nominated Wolf Walkers (Ireland/ Luxembourg 2020, Dir Tomm Moore Ross Stewart), one of the most beautiful animations of recent years; the jaw-dropping adventure Over the Moon (US/ China 2020, Dir Glen Keane); a Buster Keaton silent programme (USA 1920, Dirs various), with live music from the renowned pianist Robin Harris; and the perennial family favourite The Wizard of Oz (USA 1939, Dirs Victor Fleming & George Cukor), perhaps one of the most sumptuous musicals ever committed to celluloid.

Barbican Cinema On Demand

Highlights in June include the final instalment of Chronic Youth 2021, with a screening of Lisbon Beat (Portugal 2019, Dir Rita Maia + Vasco Viana) + Introduction by co-director Rita Maia; and a New East Cinema screening of Walls Remember, a shorts compilation and a pre-recorded ScreenTalk.

June also includes two ground-breaking documentaries about the women’s movement: The 8th (Ireland/U.S.A 2020 Dirs Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy and Maeve O’Boyle) and Ahead of the Curve (USA/ Canada, Dir Jen Rainin). The 8th reveals a country forging a new path at a time when reproductive rights are threatened around the world. Shot over a three-year period, co-directors Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy and Maeve O’Boyle follow campaigners of Ireland’s reproductive rights movement Ailbhe Smyth and Andrea Horan, leading up to the historic 2018 referendum.

With a fist full of credit cards, a lucky run at the horse track, and a lot of chutzpah Franco Stevens launched Curve, the best-selling lesbian magazine ever published. Ahead Of The Curve tracks the power of lesbian visibility and community from the early ‘90s to the present day. Decades later, in the wake of an injury, Franco learns that Curve will fold within the year and questions the relevance of the magazine today, whilst deeply aware of accelerating threats to the LGBTQ+ community.

JUNE 2021 CINEMA LISTINGS:

BARBICAN CINEMAS

Members' Screening
Preview: The Father (12A)
UK/France 2020, Dir Florian Zeller, 96 min
Tue 1 Jun 2021, 6.05 pm, Barbican Cinema 2
On sale to members only: from 10 am on Wed 26 May  
Ticket price: £9.60

Chronic Youth 2021: Lisbon Beat (15*)
+ introduction by co-director Rita Maia
Portugal 2019, Dir Rita Maia + Vasco Viana, 75 min
Thu 3 Jun 8.45pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Standard ticket price:  £12/ Members: £9.60/ Concessions: £11/
Young Barbican: £5

Return to the City
Tue 8 – Sun 27 June 2021, Barbican Cinema 1
Standard ticket price:  £12/ Members: £9.60/ Concessions: £11/
Young Barbican: £5

New East Cinema: Walls Remember: Shorts Compilation (15*)
+ pre-recorded ScreenTalk
Wed 9 Jun 2021, 6.00 pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Standard ticket price:  £12/ Members: £9.60/ Concessions: £11/
Young Barbican: £5

Shiva Baby (#) + Recorded Q&A
USA/ Canada, Dir       Emma Seligman, 77min
Wed 9 Jun 2021, 6.00 pm, Barbican Cinema 2
Standard ticket price:  £12/ Members: £9.60/ Concessions: £11/
Young Barbican: £5

Preview: The Filmmaker’s House (12A)  + Screentalk with director Marc Isaacs and writer Adam Ganz
UK 2020, Dir Marc Isaacs, 76 min
Thu 17 Jun 6pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Screentalk ticket price: £13.50/ Members: £10.80/  Young Barbican: £5

The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival
Fri 25 – We 30 Jun, Barbican Cinema 1
Standard ticket price:  £12/ Members: £9.60/ Concessions: £11/
Young Barbican: £5

Family Film Club
Every Saturday in June 11am & 12pm/12.30pm, Barbican Cinemas 2&3
Standard ticket price: over-18s £3.50/ Under 18s £2.50

BARBICAN CINEMA ON DEMAND

Chronic Youth 2021: Lisbon Beat (15*)
Portugal 2019, Dir Rita Maia + Vasco Viana, 75 min
Barbican Cinema On Demand
Available to stream: Fri 4 Jun - Wed 30 Jun 2021
Pay per view: Full:5.00/ Young Barbican: £4.00/ Barbican Members £3.75

The 8th
Ireland/U.S.A 2020 Dirs Aideen Kane & Lucy Kennedy, 94 min
Barbican Cinema On Demand
Available to stream: Mon 17 May – Tue 22 Jun
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £8.00

Ahead of the Curve
USA/ Canada, Dir Jen Rainin, 95 min
Barbican Cinema On Demand
Available to stream: Fri 4 Jun – Fri 2 Jul
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £8.00

New East Cinema: Walls Remember:
Shorts Compilation +  pre-recorded ScreenTalk
Barbican Cinema On Demand
Available to stream: Thu 10 Jun – Sat 31 Jul
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £8.00

Barbican Cinema has been supported by the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas in England which is administered by the BFI, as part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund supporting arts and cultural organisations in England affected by the impact of COVID-19. #HereForCulture.