Press room

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:

    Queer East Festival:

• Some Nights I Feel Like Walking – Tue 29 Apr
• Where Is My Love? + Incidental Journey – Wed 30 Apr
• Experimental Shorts Programme: Floating Between Frontiers – Sun 11 May
• ​Batch '81 – Mon 12 May
• Pierce – Wed 14 May
• Looking for an Angel + ScreenTalk – Thu 15 May
• Theatre: When the Cloud Catches Colours – Thu 24 Apr-Sat 26 Apr 
  
  Open City Documentary Film Festival:
• Opening Night: Siticulosa – Tue 6 May
• Sanrizuka – Heta Village – Thu 8 May
• Available Light – Fri 9 May
• Listen with your eyes 3: Experimental Films for Families – Sat 10 May
• Henry Fonda for President – Sat 10 May
• The Clock, or: 89 Minutes of 'Free Time' – Sat 10 May
• Oyoyo – Sun 11 May 
   
• Unsettled Reality, Tomorrow’s Imagination: Contemporary Shorts by 
  Iranian Women Filmmakers + ScreenTalk – Tue 13 May
• Fashion in Film Festival: GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature
  – Tue 22 May-Fri 30 May
• Animation at War: When the Wind Blows + ScreenTalk – Wed 28 May 
   

Regular Programme strands:
 

• Family Film Club – every Saturday morning
• Experiments in Film: God Bless the Child.  A Performance Lecture by Christopher Harris – Tue 27 May
• Experiments in Film: Graeme Arnfield: Zero-Gravity Resistance - Lecture Performances & Screening – Thu 29 May
• New East Cinema: Toxic + ScreenTalk – Thu 29 May
• Senior Community Screenings:
• Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat – Mon 12 May
• Anora – Mon 26 May
• Relaxed Screenings:
• The Brutalist – Fri 2 May
• Pay What You Can Screenings – Every Fri
   

Event Cinema:
 

• MET Opera Live: Le Nozze di Figaro – Sat 3 May
• björk: cornucopia – Wed 7 May
• MET Opera Live: Salome – Sat 17 May
• Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Die Walkure – Sun 18 May
• MET Opera Live: Il Barbiere di Siviglia – Sat 31 May 
   

May brings a bold and diverse cinema programme atto the Barbican, with three returning partner Festivals including Open City Documentary Film Festival, Queer East Festival and the Fashion in Film Festival. 

The 15th edition of Open City Documentary Festival takes place at venues across London 6-11 May and presents a programme of international contemporary and retrospective non-fiction moving image, audio and cross media, as well as filmmaker Q&As, panels, talks and workshops.

Queer East, now in its sixth year, is a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ cinema, live arts and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia, and explores the notions of what it means to be queer and Asian today.  As well as the film programme, this year also marks an exciting new chapter as the Barbican collaborates with Queer East on the UK premiere of the theatre show When the Cloud Catches Colours, taking place in The Pit (Thu 24-Sat 26 April). 

Fashion in Film Festival’s eighth edition, GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature, takes cinema as a lens through which to consider the complex relationship between fashion and nature.

Experiments in Film in May presents God Bless the Child, a multi-media screening that delves into the filmmaker Christopher Harris' first autobiographical project; comparing the US care system to life in Senegal, blending personal history, archive, and 16mm footage. 

Zero-Gravity Resistance - Lecture Performances & Screening is the second Experiments in Film programme in May and is part of Graeme Arnfield's research into a labour dispute for The Case Against Space, a new cinematic project examining the first labour strike to occur in outer space and reflecting on contemporary labour conditions in the era of privatized space exploration.    

Unsettled Reality, Tomorrow’s Imagination: Contemporary Shorts by Iranian Women Filmmakers – and ScreenTalk with curator Mania Akbari and director Shadi Karamroudi –is a selection of five films by young Iranian women filmmakers that delve into the fragile and shifting nature of contemporary existence, as seen through their perspectives.

Further highlights this month includes the second instalment of Animation at War, with the haunting British film When the Wind Blows, which dramatizes the worst fears of the Cold War era’s nuclear anxiety, as told through the misfortunes of an ill-prepared elderly English couple. 

New East Cinema in May presents the Lithuanian film Toxic (plus ScreenTalk) in which two teenage girls enrol in a modelling school hoping to make a better life for themselves and escape the grip of poverty.

Senior Community Screenings in May include Sean Baker’s multiple Academy Award winning Anora and the compelling documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat. Relaxed screenings include Brady Corbet’s architecture drama The Brutalist.
 

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events 

Queer East Festival 2025

Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (18*)
Philippines 2024, Dir Petersen Vargas, 103min
Tue 29 Apr, 6.20pm
Cinema 1

Following the death of his boyfriend, the teenage Zion runs away from home and meets a group of street hustlers at a Manila bus terminal one night. Award-winning director Petersen Vargas conjures up an edgy and erotic nightscape in this lyrical exploration of desire, home, and belonging.

Where Is My Love? + Incidental Journey (18*)
Taiwan 1996 dir. ​Jo-Fei Chen 56 min
Taiwan 2002 dir. Jo-Fei Chen 1hr 1min
Wed 30 Apr, 6.15pm
Cinema 3

A screening of two ground-breaking works from female filmmaking pioneer Jo-Fei Chen that take a close look at the lives of contemporary gay and lesbian communities.

Floating Between Frontiers + ScreenTalk (18*)
Sun 11 May, 5.45pm 
Cinema 3 

An experimental non-fiction and fiction film programme that explores the suffocation engendered by frontiers and borders across historical, social and personal terrains. 

Batch '81 (18*)
Philippines 1981, Dir Mike de Leon, 120min 
Mon 12 May, 6.20pm 
Cinema 1 

Hailed as one of the greatest Filipino films of all time, Batch ’81 is groundbreaking psychological drama: both an unflinching study of sadomasochistic college fraternity traditions, and a camp metaphor for life in the Philippines under the Marcos regime. 

Pierce (18*)
Singapore/ Tawain/ Poland 2024, Dir Nelicia Low, 109min
Wed 14 May, 6.20pm 
Cinema 2 

​In this tense thriller, a young Taiwanese fencer reconnects with his estranged older brother, a convicted killer. 

Looking for an Angel + ScreenTalk (18*)
Japan 1999, Dir Akihiro Suzuki, 61min
Thu 15 May, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2 

​Takachi, a young gay porn star, is found dead in Tokyo. At his wake, two of his friends, Reiko and Shinpei, recollect their time together, attempting to piece together fragments of Takachi’s life. A quintessential example of Japan’s dynamic queer cinema scene. 

Theatre: When the Cloud Catches Colours
Thu 24 – Sat 26 Apr, 2.30pm (Sat) +7.45pm (Thu, Fri + Sat)  
The Pit, Barbican Centre 

The UK premiere of thought-provoking theatre exploring the experience of two queer Singaporeans as they grow older. Based on true accounts, the show delves into relationships, family, insecurity, kindness and safety.

Open City Documentary Festival 

Opening Night: UK Premiere of Siticulosa + ScreenTalk with Maeve Brennan
Denmark 2025, Dir Maeve Brennan, 45min
Tue 6 May, 6.30pm 
Cinema 1 

Maeve Brennan turns her meticulous gaze to the landscape the looted objects in An Excavation were extracted from in Southern Italy. Siticulosa’s multidisciplinary research considers the relationship between archaeology, geology and agriculture in the Puglian landscape. 

Sanrizuka – Heta Village (三里塚 辺田部落)
Japan 1973, Dir Sanrizuka Heta Buraku, 146min
Thu 8 May, 6.30pm
Cinema 2

One of the great films of Ogawa Productions, the culmination of a long cycle of films on the conflicts at Sanrizuka, and a meditation on peasant life and the time of the village.

Open City Documentary Festival Combined Programme: Available Light
Fri 9 May, 6.30pm
Cinema 3

This programmes brings together four new works by UK-based artists Chiemi Shimada, Luke Fowler, Morgan Quaintance and Corin Sworn who will all be present for a post-screening discussion. 

Listen with your eyes 3: Experimental Films for Families
Sat 10 May, 11am
Cinema 3

Listen with your eyes is an ongoing series of screenings that aims to create a space for children of all ages to engage with and enjoy experimental forms of cinema. Presented in collaboration with the Barbican Family Film Club. 

Henry Fonda for President + ScreenTalk with Alexander Horwath and Erika Balsom 
Austria/ Germany 2024, Dir Alexander Horwath, 184min 
Sat 10 May, 1pm
Cinema 3

Henry Fonda who famously played Abraham Lincoln and is perhaps best remembered as the juror with a conscience in Twelve Angry Men(1957) provides the narrative backbone for this personal essay film on the past and future of America. 

The Clock, or: 89 Minutes of “Free Time”
Sat 10 May, 6.30pm
Cinema 1

Curated by Alexander Horwath, this programme of short films is a surreal – or childlike – attempt at telling a story of the 20th century.

Oyoyo
GDR 1980, Dir Chetna Vora, 68min
Sunday 11 May, 3pm
Cinema 2 

Filmed entirely within a student hall of residence in East Berlin, Indian-born filmmaker Chetna Vora captures the conviviality of a community of international students through conversation, studying, and dancing. 
 
Unsettled Reality, Tomorrow’s Imagination: Contemporary Shorts by Iranian Women Filmmakers (15*) + ScreenTalk with curator Mania Akbari and director 
Shadi Karamroudi
Thu 13 May, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2 

Through intimate narratives and striking visuals, these films illuminate the dreams, fears, and resilience of a generation navigating uncertainty while daring to envision alternative futures. 

Full programme information: www.barbican.org.uk/unsettledreality 

GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature  
Tue 22 May-Fri 30 May 

Fashion in Film Festival 2025 presents GROUNDED, a major UK-wide season exploring the relationship between fashion and nature through the lens of cinema. 

Spanning the late 19th century to present day, the programme examines fashion’s role as simultaneously a barrier and a connecting tissue between humans and the natural world  offering a decentred perspective on themes such as production, disposal, hybridity, migration, social justice, and environmental harm. GROUNDED presents diverse narratives addressing ecological and geopolitical concerns while exploring imaginative spaces of poetry, comedy, beauty, joy, horror, and transgression.  

The programme is co-curated by Marketa Uhlirova and Dal Chodha, with guest curators. It has been made possible with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery. 

Artist Films – Colonial Threads (18*)  
63min approx. 
Thu 22 May, 7pm
Cinema 2 

Three contemporary artist films explore how textiles and dress are directly implicated in histories of land, colonialism, migration and trade.  

Family Film Club: Fashion in Film Festival Shorts – Nature’s Resources (U*)
48min approx. 
Sat 24 May 11am
Cinema 2  

Barbican’s Family Film Club partners with Fashion in Film Festival for the first time to present an exciting programme of archive short films and contemporary animation that showcases the harmonious collaboration between humans, non-humans and the natural world, and the power of cinema to bring the impossible to life. 
 

The Magino Village Story: Raising Silkworms (U*) + Intro
Japan 1977, Dir Ogawa Productions, 112 min
Wed 28 May 8.45pm
Cinema 2 

An unusual insight into sericulture that celebrates the animal, botanical, earthy and craft-based origins of silk. From the birth of silkworms in the spring, to their cocoon building in time for autumn, this film immerses viewers in nature, deep in the mountains of northern Japan.  

Silent Film & Live Music: Into the Garden of Chimerical Delights (PG*) + panel discussion with Musarc and Curators Marketa Uhlirova and Elif Rongen. 
90mins approx.
Fri 30 May 7pm
Cinema 1 

A programme of archival gems exploring the delicate and gloriously perverse associations between women, flowers and insects as envisioned by early 20th century filmmakers.  

Spanning various pre-World War I genres, these shorts reflect 19th-century notions of femininity as synonymous with beauty and sensuality while also revealing potent undercurrents of ‘dangerous’ female exoticism, eroticism and power.  
 

Animation at War: When The Wind Blows + ScreenTalk
UK 1986, Dir Jimmy T. Murakami, 94min 
Wed 28 May 2025, 6.20pm 
Cinema 3 

Director Jimmy T Murakami’s 1986 adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ harrowing graphic novel stands as a (sometimes overlooked) classic of British animation, bringing to life Briggs’ empathetic portrayal of the innocence and ignorance of everyday folk in the face of the sabre-rattling of the powers that-be and the devastation of nuclear war. 

Raymond Briggs based the protagonists, Jim (John Mills) and Hilda (Peggy Ashcroft) Bloggs, on his own parents: a generation who implicitly trusted their higher-ups and put their faith in public information pamphlets and films. Both the film and book explore how a Blitz spirit doesn’t count for much against megaton-sized bombs and deadly radiation.

Full the full season press release: 
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/animation-at-war 

Regular Programme Strands

Family Film Club 
Every Sat, 11am 

Family Film Club in May is delighted to partner with both the Open City Documentary Festival and Fashion in Film Festival to present exciting programmes of short films suitable for family audiences, offering new and different content. 

Further highlights include the beautiful Japanese animation Mary and the Witch’s Flower (Japan 2017), and the Oscar winning hit film Flow (Latvia/ Belgium/France 2024). Check out the website for the full programme and further activity announcements.  

Experiments in Film: God Bless the Child 
Tue 27 May, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2 

Drawing on his experience in foster care, Harris weaves together photographs and official records with film material from Senegal. He examines the structures of social welfare and child services along with Black childhood in the US.

Harris will be joined by Kodwo Eshun to explore the themes of his work and discuss the archival materials that are the foundation of his upcoming experimental essay film: records from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, family photographs, his childhood adoption listing. An open conversation and audience ScreenTalk offer a chance to engage directly with Harris. 

This event has been developed in collaboration with Valentine Umansky and the Tate Modern. Special thanks to Christopher Harris and Kodwo Eshun. 
 

Experiments in Film: Graeme Arnfield: Zero-Gravity Resistance - Lecture Performances & Screening (12A)
Thu 29 May, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2 

Arnfield will present two distinct lecture performances: the first, a retelling of a 1973 labour dispute between three astronauts and NASA, set to his re-edit of Dark Star (1974); the second, a dramatic reading performed by one of his actors, accompanied by a re-edit of Marooned (1969), John Sturges’ space disaster film starring Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman.  

Between screenings, Arnfield will lead a discussion on his research, cinematic influences, and the development of The Case Against Space through writings, sonic work, and group discussions.

Organised in collaboration with Film London and FLAMIN.
 

New East Cinema: Toxic (18*) + ScreenTalk
Lithuania 2024, Dir Saulė Bliuvaitė, 99min
Thu 29 May, 6.10pm
Cinema 2 

The newest gem in the canon of contemporary Lithuanian cinema, Toxic holds nothing back: with her brazenly defiant first film, director Saulė Bliuvaitė shows us a teenage girl’s world like we’ve never seen it before.

Marija (Vesta Matulytė) and Kristina (Ieva Rupeikaitė) are best friends, both 13 years-old, and ready to take on the world. At the cusp of adulthood, they still play ball games, yet they dream of leaving their decaying hometown for a life of catwalks and beauty. 

This audacious debut won Bliuvaitė three awards at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, including the main prize – the Golden Leopard.
 

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

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (12A)
Belgium/ France/ Netherlands 2024, Dir Johan Grimonprez, 150min
Mon 12 May, 11am
Cinema 2

An Academy Award nominated feature from Johan Grimonprez superbly capturing the moment when African politics and American jazz collided during the CIA-backed coup to depose Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

Anora (AD) (18)
USA 2024, Dir Sean Baker, 139min
Mon 26 May, 11am 
Cinema 2 

From the Oscar winning Sean Baker, Anora tells the story of a high-priced Brooklyn stripper, who becomes involved in a troubled romance with the son of a Russian oligarch. 

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:

Relaxed Screening: The Brutalist (AD) (18)
US 2024, Dir Brady Cobert, 215min
Fri 2 May, 11am
Cinema 3 

This powerful award-winning drama stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor. He emigrates to America and struggles to recreate his pre-war career while suffering the trauma of the memories of what he experienced in Europe. 

Event Cinema 

MET Opera Live: Le Nozze di Figaro (12A) 
Sat 3 May, 6pm 
Cinema 1 

björk: cornucopia (tbc) 
Wed 7 May, 8.40pm 
Cinema 3 

MET Opera Live: Salome (12A)
Sat 17 May, 6pm 
Cinema 1 

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Die Walkure (PG)
Sun 18 May, 2pm 
Cinema 2 

MET Opera Live in HD: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (12A)
Sat 31 May, 6pm 
Cinema 1