Press room

Curated by the Barbican:

• Splash, Scratch, Dunk! Films Made by Hand continues
• Preview: El Father Plays Himself + ScreenTalk with director
  Mo Scarpelli
• The Last Forest + The Laughing Alligator
• Black Milk + pre-recorded ScreenTalk
• New East Cinema: UK Premiere: Silent Voice + pre-recorded ScreenTalk with director Reka Valerik
• Britain on the Move + live accompaniment by Guildhall School’s Electronic Music Studio
• Outdoor Cinema – a late summer programme in the Barbican Sculpture Court including Vertigo, Summertime and Orlando

Also Screening at the Barbican:

• Sundance Film Festival London 2021 Tour

  Barbican Cinema On Demand

• Black Milk + pre-recorded ScreenTalk
• New East Cinema: Silent Voice + pre-recorded ScreenTalk with director Reka Valerik
• El Father Plays Himself

There’s much for film lovers to enjoy this August at the Barbican, with a varied and engaging programme that caters for all cinematic tastes. Highlights include: Outdoor Cinema, a late summer programme of alfresco screenings in the Barbican Sculpture Court; a programme of three exciting previews as part of the Sundance Film Festival London 2021 Tour; the concluding part of the Splash, Scratch, Dunk! Films Made by Hand season; and the UK premiere of the compelling documentary  Silent Voice, about a young gay man who flees Chechnya, with a pre-recorded ScreenTalk with  director Reka Valerik.

Further delights include Britain on the Move, a selection of British Transport Films and live accompaniment by the Guildhall School’s Electronic Music Studio; a preview screening of El Father Plays Himself and ScreenTalk with director Mo Scarpelli; two films The Last Forest and The Laughing Alligator, about the lives of the Yanomami, Brazil’s largest indigenous peoples (in association with Claudia Andujar’s exhibition); and a screening of  Uisenma Borchu’s unique Mongolian melodrama Black Milk.

Curated by the Barbican:

Splash, Scratch, Dunk! Films Made by Hand:
Has the Feature Started Yet? (12A*) + Pre-recorded Intro by Professor Nicole Brenez
France 1951 Dir Maurice Lemaître, 61 min digital sound 
Thu 5 Aug, 6.30 pm, Barbican Cinema 1

There is an alternative history of cinema, one quite apart from the commercial mainstream, but also a distinct subset of experimental cinema: films made entirely by hand, without a camera. The Barbican Cinema season Splash, Scratch, Dunk! Films Made by Hand, celebrates the work of these maverick artists and filmmakers.

This two-month season concludes on 5 Aug with Maurice Lemaître’s Has the Feature Started Yet? (France 1951), with a pre-recorded introduction by Professor Nicole Brenez. In this hugely influential film the artist works against conventions of sequence, narrative and intelligibility – disorienting viewers with dizzying jump-cuts between subjects, inserting single-frame explosions of blank white leader, and scribbling onto the footage with a torrent of dots and cross-hatches. He also exposes the mechanics of film construction by making visible the filmstrip’s black frame borders, sprocket holes and splices.

The director’s work here is poles apart from Len Lye and his joyous colourful abstractions (that screened earlier in July) and yet for their example of ‘creative destruction’ Maurice Lemaître and fellow filmmaker Isidore Isou are often credited with Lye as key influences on the handmade filmmakers who came after. To discuss them, and the Lettrist movement to which they belong, Professor Nicole Brenez will give a pre-recorded introduction to introduce the screening.

This season is presented in the context of the public programme complementing Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty, a Barbican exhibition celebrating French artist Jean Dubuffet.
Mon 17 May - Sun 22 Aug 2021

The ideas and selection of films for this programme were informed by Gregory Zinman’s seminal book: Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts (University of California Press, 2020) and Process Cinema: Handmade Film in the Digital Age, by Scott MacKenzie and Janine Marchessault (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019)

For further information:
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/series/splash-scratch-dunk-films-made-by-hand
To view the full press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/splash-scratch-dunk-films-made-by-hand

Preview: El Father Plays Himself + ScreenTalk with director
Mo Scarpelli
Venezuela/ UK / Italy/ US 2020, 105min, Dir Mo Scarpelli
Thu 5 Aug, 6.45 pm, Barbican Cinema 3|
Barbican Cinema On Demand Fri 6 Aug – Fri 3 Sep

When Jorge Thielen Armand set out to make a film about the life of his maverick father, who plays himself in the lead role (La Fortaleza, which competed at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2020), Mo Scarpelli accompanied the film crew to make a behind-the-scenes documentary. With a keen eye for detail and emotion, she documented the shooting of the film which largely took place in harsh conditions in the Venezuelan jungle.

In an observational style, Scarpelli presents a close-up view of the father-son dynamics, which - partly due to the stress of the film shoot - swing back and forth between explosive and enviably intimate. Home videos of the young father and son add a moving and poignant layer.

The Last Forest + The Laughing Alligator (12A*)
The Last Forest, Brazil 2021, Dir Luiz Bolognesi, 74 min
The Laughing Alligator, USA 1979, Dir Juan Downey 26 min
Sun 8 Aug, 4 pm, Barbican Cinema 1

Two films, using different approaches, find new ways to visually portray the rituals and mythology of the Yanomami, who live in the Amazon rainforest, in northern Brazil and southern Venezuela.

In The Laughing Alligator, Cuban artist Juan Downey creates a highly personal and playful portrayal of the Yanomami. Shot whilst Downey and his family were living alongside the tribe in Venezuela, the film highlights the presence of the filmmaker, whist challenging conventional approaches of the ethnographic documentary.

Filmed deep within the Amazon rainforest The Last Forest, sees director Luiz Bolognesi alongside community leader and Shaman Davi Kopenawa, develop a film which mixes traditional observational approaches with staged re-enactments and performances, resulting in a work guided and shaped by the Yanomami community itself.

This screening is presented in the context of the public programme complementing Claudia Andujar: The Yanomami Struggle, a Barbican exhibition celebrating photographer Claudia Andujar and her long running interactions with the Yanomami. Thu 17 Jun - Sun 29 Aug 2021, The Curve.

Black Milk (18) + pre-recorded ScreenTalk with director Uisenma Borchu, hosted by Hyun Jin Cho.
Germany/Mongolia 2020, Dir Uisenma Borchu, 91 min
Tue 10 Aug 2021, 6 pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Barbican Cinema On Demand, Wed 11 Aug – Thu 30 Sep

Two Mongolian sisters reunite in the Gobi Desert after decades of separation. Wessi returns after years of living in Germany, having left an abusive relationship, and wants to fully participate in the nomadic life, admiring the skills of Ossi, her sister who remained in Mongolia.

Ossi is overwhelmed by the return of her sister, who has very different values to her, and is concerned when Wessi feels an erotic connection with an older neighbour.

This beautiful, often startling semi-autobiographical film offers a unique exploration of identity, culture clash, radical sensuality and transgression. It features excellent performances from director Uisenma Borchu and Gunsmaa Tsogzol as the sisters, whose complex relationship is the heart of this powerful drama.

New East Cinema: UK Premiere: Silent Voice (15*)
+ pre-recorded ScreenTalk with director Reka Valerik
France/Belgium 2020, Dir Reka Valerik, 51 min

Wed 11 Aug, 6.30 pm, Barbican Cinema 1
Then screens on Barbican Cinema On Demand, Thu 12 Aug – Thu 30 Sep

A young martial arts fighter flees Chechnya, after his brother discovers that he is gay and threatens to kill him, and struggles to find his way in a new country in this powerful documentary.

Khavaj, a young gay Mixed Martial Arts fighter, has fled his birthplace of Chechnya where homophobia is rife and overtly expressed by its leadership. Fearful of the death threats made by his brother, he has moved to Belgium, where he must live in total anonymity.

Silent Voice traces Khavaj’s first months in Brussels, where he struggles to adapt to a new identity and tries to regain his ability to speak, lost through the trauma of his predicament.

Silent Voice is a tremendously brave and moving film in which director Reka Valerik follows Khajav as he listens to phone messages from his distraught mother and starts to build a new life. Film festivals in Russia have cancelled screenings of the film, following threats and complaints about the promotion of ‘LGBT values’. This screening is the first time the film has been shown in the UK.

Silent Film and Live Music: Britain on the Move (#)
+ live accompaniment by the Guildhall School’s Electronic Music Studio
Dirs various, event running time approx. 110 min
Sun 15 Aug, 3 pm, Barbican Cinema 1

A selection of British Transport Films, featuring fascinating footage of 1950s Britain, is accompanied by hybrid electronic and orchestral music.

In these films, shown silently with no narration, impressions of life in British industrial valleys and towns are shown alongside bucolic scenery and holiday destinations throughout the UK. Embarking on a journey through 1950s Britain, we follow the testing of a shiny new Blue Pullman train (said to be the ‘businessman’s train’ at the time) and explore new train signalling methods and mechanised track-laying. The viewer journeys through a great variety of scenery and history in Wales and Northumberland and even venture under the sea, in an Oscar-nominated short film about the colourful marine life of coastal Southwest England.

These fascinating short films about British landscape and transport are accompanied by live music written by composers and musicians of the Guildhall School’s Electronic Music Studio featuring hybrid electronic and orchestral music.

Outdoor Cinema
Tue 24 Aug – Sun 29 Aug, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/series/outdoor-cinema

Barbican Cinema is delighted to present a late summer programme of evening Outdoor Cinema screenings, bringing together all the Barbican art forms – cinema, music, theatre and art – in the dramatic setting of the Barbican Sculpture Court.

Audiences will be able to enjoy an alfresco programme that includes the classics: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (USA 1958), David Lean’s Summertime (UK 1955) and Sally Potter’s Orlando (UK/ France/ Russia 1992).

Other highlights include Pina (Germany 2011), Wim Wenders’ stunning tribute to the late choreographer Pina Bausch, a double bill of films from Floating Points – the pioneering electronic music composer – including the European premiere of Promises: Through Congress (USA 2021, Dir Trevor Tweeten) and Reflections – Mojave Desert (USA 2017, Dir Anna Diaz Ortuño); and Humanity, Climate, Society (Dirs various), a programme of artists film and video focusing on human interactions with the natural environment, questioning our relationship with land and interrogating colonial histories.

Outdoor Cinema Screenings

Pina (U)
Germany 2011, Dir Wim Winders, 103 min
Tue 24 Aug, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court

Floating Points: Reflections - Mojave Desert
USA 2017, Dir Anna Diaz Ortuño, 27 min
+ Promises Through Congress (12a)
USA 2021, Dir Trevor Tweeten, 46 min
Wed 25 Aug, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court

Humanity, Climate, Society (12a*)
Dirs Various
Thu 26 Aug, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court

Orlando (PG)
UK/Russia/Italy/France/Netherlands 1992, Dir Sally Potter, 89 min
Fri 27 Aug, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court

Vertigo (PG)
USA 1958, Dir Alfred Hitchcock, 122 min
Sat 28 Aug, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court

Summertime
UK 1955, Dir David Lean, 99 min
Sun 29 Aug 2021, 8.30 pm, Barbican Sculpture Court

Also Screening at the Barbican:

Sundance Film Festival London 2021 Tour
Fri 30 Jul – Sun 1 Aug, Barbican Cinema 1 & 3

Barbican Cinema is delighted to screen highlights from the Sundance Film Festival London 2021 Tour.

Each screening will include a pre-recorded intro and a Q&A between Sundance programmers and the people involved in the making of the films.

The programme includes: The Nest (UK/ Canada 2021, Dir Sean Durkin, 107 min), starring Jude Law, who plays a charismatic entrepreneur, who relocates his family from the US to England, with dreams of profiting from a booming 1980’s London; and Zola (USA 2021, Dir Janicza Bravo, 86 min), about a Detroit waitress, who is seduced into a weekend of stripping in Florida for some quick cash, but the venture soon turns sour and into a sleepless 48-hour odyssey involving a nefarious friend and her dubious boyfriend.

Further highlights include Writing With Fire (India 2021, Dirs Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas, 92 min), which looks at the role of India's only newspaper run by Dalit women. Armed with smartphones, Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions on the frontlines, and redefine what it means to be powerful.

Barbican Cinema On Demand

This month Cinema On Demand offers an international and diverse programme with films from Venezuela, Mongolia and Chechnya (that also screen in venue) and tackle difficult and challenging subjects.

In El Father Plays Himself (Venezuela/ UK / Italy/ US 2020), a young film director returns to Venezuela, inspired to make a film based on his father's life in the Amazon jungle. He casts Father to play himself. What starts as an act of love and ambition spirals into a process which confronts Father’s struggles with addiction and his life devoid of his son. Black Milk (Germany/Mongolia 2020) tells the story of a Mongolian woman, who after years of living in Germany returns to her native country and family home in the steppes and experiences a new sexual liberation. In Silent Voice (France/Belgium 2020), a young martial arts fighter flees Chechnya, after his brother discovers that he is gay and threatens to kill him. This is a tremendously brave and moving story and film festivals in Russia have cancelled screenings of the film, following threats and complaints about the promotion of ‘LGBT values’.

Box office: The Barbican believes in creating space for people and ideas to connect though its international arts programme, community events and learning activity. To keep its programme accessible to everyone, and to keep investing in the artists it works with, the Barbican needs to raise more than 60% of its income through ticket sales, commercial activities and fundraising every year.
Donations can be made here: barbican.org.uk/donate