Press room

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:
•    Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after the 1970s – Sun 1 Dec – Thu 12 Dec
•    London International Animation Festival: The Best of the Fest – Sun 1 Dec 
•    Sine Screen: Precarious Landscapes – Tue 3 Dec – 15 Dec
•    Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum Presents… Woman of the Dunes – Sat 14 Dec + Rear Window – Wed 18 Dec

Regular Programme strands:

•    Family Film Club: 
•    Double bill screening: Stickman + Gruffalo's Child – Sat 7 Dec
•    Animal Tales of Christmas Magic – Sat 14 Dec 
•    Cinema Restored: Sarah Maldoror’s Carnaval Trilogy – Tue 17 Dec 
•    Senior Community Screenings:
•    Free Event: Kensuke's Kingdom – Mon 9 Dec 
•    Thelma – Mon 23 Dec 
•    Relaxed Screenings:
•    The Stimming Pool + ScreenTalk – Mon 9 Dec
•    Between The Temples – Mon 16 Dec 
•    Sing Sing – Fri 27 Dec 
•    Pay What You Can Screenings – Every Fri

Event Cinema:

•    Laufey’s A Night At The Symphony: Hollywood Bowl – Sun 8 Dec 
•    Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Cinderella – Sun 15 Dec 
•    Royal Ballet & Opera Live: The Nutcracker – Tue 17 Dec

There’s much for film fans to enjoy at the Barbican this December, with an international thought-provoking programme which begins with the final part of Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after the 1970s, a three month season which, in December, includes the trailblazing film Alley of Ill Repute (Badnam Basti, India 1971), which revolves around a complex love triangle between two men and a woman, and was India’s first ever LGBTQ+ film.

In Sine Screen: Precarious Landscapes, the marginal histories in East and South-East Asia are explored through a series of experimental films from Thailand, Vietnam, China and Korea. These films interrogate representation in cinema, and how film as a medium can both reveal and withhold certain information.

Cinema Restored in December presents Sarah Maldoror's Carnaval Trilogy, three films 
by the French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, that look at carnival and celebration after independence in West Africa in the 1980s.

As Christmas approaches, cinema goers can get festive with two Royal Opera House Live: ballet screenings of Cinderella and The Nutcracker, both enchanting productions that remain Christmas favourites. Family Film Club also has a festive theme in December with a double bill screening of Stickman + Gruffalo's Child, and Animal Tales of Christmas Magic, five shorts from female filmmakers all about Christmas, animals and magic.

In Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum Presents…the artist, whose exhibition It Will End in Tears, runs in the Barbican Curve till 5 Jan 2025, responds to this with two films she’s selected which expand upon her work: Alfred Hitchcock’s classic tale of obsession Rear Window, alongside, Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman of the Dunes, one of the greatest Japanese classics of the 1960s.

Senior Community Screenings in December include a free screening of the captivating animation Kensuke's Kingdom, followed by a Screentalk with the directors and a producer of the film; and Thelma, about the real-life 93-year-old Thelma Post, who, after getting scammed out of a hefty amount of her savings, decides to go out seeking justice, one mobility scooter stunt at a time!

Relaxed Screenings this month screenings include The Stimming Pool + ScreenTalk with filmmakers, a unique film exploring a world shaped by neurodiverse perspectives; Between The Temples, the new comedy-drama from independent filmmaker Nathan Silver, and Sing Sing, a story about the transformative power of art, in which a man imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside his fellow inmates.

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events

Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970 
Sat 2 Nov – Thurs 12 Dec
Cinema 1 & 3

Barbican’s Cinema’s major season Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970, concludes in December. This is an integral part of the Barbican’s major exhibition The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 (5 October 2024 – 5 January 2025) which explores a period of significant cultural and political change in India’s recent history.

The December programme begins with Report to Mother (India 1986), John Abraham’s road movie-come political chronicle that explores themes of grief, solidarity and the cost of political revolution. This follows with the provocative documentary In the Name of God (India 1982), by Anand Patwardhan, which examines the intense and turbulent socio-political landscape of India in the early 1990s. Focusing on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi controversy – in which Hindus claimed the right to demolish an existing mosque in Ayodhya and build a temple on the same site – it probes the rise of Hindu nationalism and its devastating impact on communal harmony.  

The season closes with Alley of Ill Repute (Badnam Basti, India 1971) + introduction, the rewriting of the traditional rules that underpinned Indian cinema for a number of decades was characterized by this pioneering and taboo breaking and film. Originally believed to be lost and only recently rediscovered in 2019, the story revolves around a complex love triangle between two men and a woman and was India’s first ever LGTBQ+ film.

View the full season press release: 
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/rewriting-the-rules-pioneering-indian-cinema-after-1970

London International Animation Festival 2024: Closing Night Gala - The Best of the Fest (18*)
Sun 1 Dec, 5.20pm + 8.20pm 
Cinema 1

The judges have deliberated, the audience votes have been added up and the producers have put together a final programme that celebrates the highlights. Awards are given for the ‘Best Sound,’ ‘Best Children’s Film’, ‘Best Abstract Film’ and ‘Best Late Night Bizarre Film’. And as always, the programme ends with the ‘Best British film’ and the ‘Best film of the Festival’.

Sine Screen: Precarious Landscapes
Tue 3 – 15 Dec
Cinema 2

Precarious Landscapes is part of Sine Screen’s Vulnerable Histories series, exploring marginal histories in East and South-East Asia, and seeks to reimagine cinema’s relationship to our landscape through a politicised, decolonial experimental lens. Sine Screen is a female-led emerging screening collective dedicated to showcasing independent cinema and moving images works from East and Southeast Asia.

Precarious Landscapes 01
Tue 3 Dec, 6.30pm
Cinema 2
Experimental films from Thailand, Vietnam, China and Korea, that look at how people related to the land around them, through mythical, decolonial and sensory lenses.

By making use of our full range of senses, this programme allows us to experience moving image and experimental film in a new way, such that it offers a new way to relate to the world around us, time and space.
Full programme listings here

Precarious Landscapes 02
Sun 15 Dec, 5.45pm
Cinema 2

These experimental and narrative short films from Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, explores myth, fantasy and growing up in a time of crisis and change.

Prioritising the personal over the scientific, these films look at how the hope of a new world wrestles with the ghosts of the past. The screening will be preceded by a sound performance by Zhao Jiajing, a London-based composer and interdisciplinary artist whose work seeks to evoke cross-sensory imaginations.
Full programme listings here

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum Presents: Woman of the Dunes (15) + Rear Window 
14 Dec + 18 Dec
Cinema 3

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition, It Will End in Tears, is in the Barbican Curve till 5 Jan 2025, and in response to this she has selected two films which expand upon themes in her work: Alfred Hitchock’s classic tale of obsession Rear Window, alongside, Hiroshi Teshigahara’s masterful suspense and social commentary in Woman of the Dunes.
 

Woman of the Dunes (15)
Japan 1964, Dir Hiroshi Teshigahara, 141min
Dec 14, 2.30pm
Cinema 3

Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman of the Dunes (1964) is a haunting existential drama that delves into the primal struggle for survival, identity, and freedom. The film shares a thematic resonance with the exhibition’s exploration of isolation, time, and the body’s relationship to its environment. Like Sunstrum’s work, the film grapples with the paradox of endless labour and the passage of time, revealing the tensions between freedom and obligation, intimacy and alienation.

Rear Window 
USA 1954, Dir Alfred Hitchcock, 114min
Wed 18 Dec, 6.20pm
Cinema 3

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) is a taut psychological thriller that masterfully explores the thin line between observation and intrusion. Screening in response to It Will End in Tears, the film echoes the themes of isolation, perception, and the human desire for connection found in Phatsimo Sunstrum’s work.

Regular Programme Strands

Family Film Club 
Every Sat, 11am 
Cinema 2  

Double Bill Screening: Stickman + Gruffalo's Child (U)
Stickman, UK 2015  Dirs Jeroen Jaspaert & Daniel Snaddon, 27min
Gruffalo's Child, UK 2011 Uwe Heidschötter & Johannes Weiland, 27min
Sat 7 Dec, 11am
Cinema 2  

The perfect double bill to kick off December, this seasonal duo is full of delightful rhymes from the wonderful Julia Donaldson, lovable characters and fantastic animation.

When Stickman falls from the family tree and is separated from his family he then must overcome great obstacles to return home – but he won’t make it without help from a certain sleigh-riding, reindeer loving friend.

And in The Gruffalo’s Child, on a snowy night in a cosy cave, the Gruffalo tells his little one the tale of the Big Bad Mouse, the fiercest most scary animal in the woods, so she sets out to see him for herself.  
Age suggestion: 3+

Animal Tales of Christmas Magic (U*)
Dir various, 2024 France, 72min
Sat 14 Dec, 11am 
Cinema 2

One of the first ever UK screenings of this delightful selection of short films – a finale to 2024’s Family Film Club season – with five shorts from female filmmakers all about Christmas, animals and magic! Each film has a distinctive animation style and audiences will be taken on journeys that spread the joy of the season to the Far North, France, Japan and the Northern Lights. 
Age suggestion: 4+

Cinema Restored: Sarah Maldoror's Carnaval Trilogy (12*)
Tue 17 Dec, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2

Three films by French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, that look at carnival and celebration after independence in West Africa in the 1980s.

Her large body of work has been finding its way back into the public consciousness, due to restorations and the tireless work of her daughters, who have been looking after her estate and maintaining her legacy.

These three films, made between 1979 -1980, were made at the invitation of the leaders of Cape Verde & Guinea-Bissau, to document the countries’ newfound independence. 
Though not envisioned as a trilogy, Maldoror captures May Day celebrations and the preparation for carnivals. In doing so, her camera captures the energy, spirit and joy that these celebrations create, but also the role they play in establishing a sense of community in the aftermath of independence.

Programme:

Fogo, l’île de feu
Francia Capo-Verde 1979, Dir Sarah Maldoror, 33min 
A vibrant portrayal of the May Day celebrations in the Republic of Cabo Verde, highlighting the island’s cultural resilience and historical importance.

Cap-Vert, un carnaval dans le Sahel
Francia Capo-Verde, 1979, Dir Sarah Maldoror, 28min
- A captivating look at the colorful preparations and celebrations of Cape Verde’s unique carnival traditions.

À Bissau, le carnaval
Guinea-Bissau 1980, Dir Sarah Maldoror, 1980, 30min 
An insightful glimpse into the festive spirit and cultural expression of Guinea-Bissau’s carnival, reflecting the joy and unity of its people.

Senior Community Screenings:
Welcoming 60+ cinema goers to watch the latest new releases every other Monday morning:

Special Free Event: Kensuke's Kingdom + ScreenTalk with Directors Neil Boyle & Kirk Hendry and Producer Barnaby Spurrier (PG) (AD) 
UK 2023, Dirs Neil Boyle + Kirk Hendry, 84min
Mon 9 Dec, 11am 
Cinema 2

A fictionalised story written by the great children’s writer known for War Horse & Alone on A Wild, Wild Sea, Kensuke’s Kingdom tells the story of a family looking for a fresh start sailing across the Pacific ocean, when their young son Michael is swept away in a storm.

Thelma (12A) (AD)
USA 2023, Dir Josh Margolin, 98min
Mon 23 Dec, 11am
Cinema 2

At the tender age of 93, Thelma has accepted her role as a grandma and a widow. 
But after she is scammed out of $10,000, she kicks back into action.

Relaxed Screenings
Relaxed screenings take place in an environment that is specially tailored for a neurodiverse audience, as well as those who find a more informal setting beneficial:

The Stimming Pool (12A) + ScreenTalk with filmmakers
UK 2025, Dirs The Neurocultures Collective (Sam Chown Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker) and Steven Eastwood, 70 min
Mon 9 Dec, 6.30pm
Cinema 3

The Stimming Pool  is a unique film exploring a world shaped by neurodiverse perspectives. The narrative unfolds through an autistic camera, capturing diverse subjects navigating environments both challenging and comforting. Characters, some concealing their autism, others thriving in their communities, share a common goal: finding a space free from societal norms - the Stimming Pool.

Between The Temples (15) (AD)
USA 2023, Dir Nathan Silver, 111min
Mon 16 Dec, 6.20pm
Cinema 3

Jason Schwartzman's world is turned upside down when his grade school music teacher (Carol Kane) re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student.

Sing Sing (15)
USA 2023, Dir Greg Kwedar, 106min
Fri 27 Dec, 12pm 
Cinema 3

Director and co-writer Greg Kwedar’s compelling drama is a fictionalised story based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme in Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. The film centres on a group of inmates involved in the creation of their own original theatrical production, Breakin' the Mummy's Code.

Pay What You Can Screenings
Every Friday one of the new release film screenings is priced Pay What You Can. 
This is for customers where ticket price may be a barrier, or for those who want to help others enjoy a visit to the cinema; audience members are invited to pay between £3-£15.

Event Cinema

Laufey’s A Night At The Symphony: Hollywood Bowl
Sun 8 Dec, 3pm 
Cinema 3

Laufey, rising jazz star and social media sensation live in concert, filmed at the iconic Hollywood Bowl, and directed by Sam Wrench (Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour). The 25-year-old Grammy-winning artist takes the audience on a spell-binding sonic journey under the stars, performing alongside the legendary Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Cinderella (12A)
Sun 15 Dec, 2pm
Cinema 3

This December, be transported into an ethereal world where a sprinkling of fairy dust makes dreams come true. This enchanting ballet by The Royal Ballet’s Founding Choreographer Frederick Ashton is a theatrical experience for all the family.

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: The Nutcracker (U*)
Tue 17 Dec, 2pm 
Cinema 1

Julia Trevelyan Oman’s period designs bring festive charm to Peter Wright’s beloved Royal Ballet production, as fairy tale magic comes together with spectacular dancing in this classic ballet.