Press room

Barbican Cinema:
March 2021 Cinema on Demand

During March, the Barbican continues to programme bold and eclectic films on Cinema On Demand. Highlights include: the 25th Human Rights Watch Film Festival; an exclusive presentation of Martine Deyres’ documentary Our Lucky Hours; an Architecture on Film presentation of Aalto (Dir Virpi Suutari), about the renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto; Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival (Dir Fabrizio Terranova), screening as part of the New Suns Feminist Literary Festival; and Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo (Dir Ali Ray), which explores the work of this iconic artist.

New releases this month include: Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché (Dirs Celeste Bell & Paul Sng), a documentary celebrating the life and work of punk icon Poly Styrene; Mouthpiece (Dir Patricia Rozema), a dramatic film about a young woman’s reaction to her mother’s sudden death; Song Without a Name (Dir Melina León), an award-winning Peruvian film; and Relic, a melancholy twist on the horror genre by first time writer/director Natalie Erika James. 

There will also be a special introductory offer, running throughout March, for newcomers to Barbican Cinema on Demand, with the titles Our Lucky Hours and Song Without a Name – and from 8 March: Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo, Relic and Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché – all available for £1 only for a limited period. Barbican members can also enjoy an extensive range of titles for free, which can be viewed here: www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/event/free-cinema-on-demand-for-members

The 2021 Human Rights Watch Film Festival celebrates 25 years with a full digital edition available to stream across the UK, in partnership with Barbican Cinema, and generously supported by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Featuring 10 powerful and uplifting new documentaries – each accompanied by a live, online discussion (free and live-captioned in English) with filmmakers, film participants, and Human Rights Watch researchers from around the world – the festival is presented exclusively on Barbican Cinema On Demand between 18-26 March.

Celebrating campaigners, individuals and journalists who shine a light on disruptive forces, this year’s empowering programme highlights trailblazing women, activists’ resilience and resistance, education as an essential tool for change and a special spotlight on Latin America. With films from Ireland, Germany, Kenya, Philippines, the United States and Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, eight of this year’s line-up are directed or co-directed by women.

The Opening Night film, The 8th shows 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.

Co-director Lucy Kennedy, film participants Ailbhe Smyth and Andrea Horan and senior researcher in the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch Hillary Margolis, will join the live virtual discussion on Thu 18 March, 8.30pm.

The Closing Night film strikes an equally determined note from young Black, queer women in the US. Unapologetic director Ashley O’Shay introduces Janaé Bonsu and Bella BAHHS, two fierce activist leaders in the US seeking justice for the deaths of two Black Chicagoans at the hands of the police. Their journey illuminates the love underpinning their anger and frustration, and elevates those who are most often leading the way while being denied the spotlight. Director Ashley O’Shay and film participants Bella BAHHS and Janaé Bonsu moderated by Chanté Joseph (Writer & Host, How Not To Be Racist) will join the live virtual discussion on Friday 26 March, 8.30pm.

For further programme information:
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/series/human-rights-watch-film-festival-2021

Preceding the Barbican Art Gallery’s exhibition Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty, Barbican Cinema On Demand will also host an exclusive presentation of Martine Deyres’s 2019 documentary Our Lucky Hours (19 Feb – 31 Mar), including a live ScreenTalk between art historian Sarah Lombardi, director of the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne and Ben Platts-Mills, who works with artists with disabilities in London and has supported the development of Hackney-based inclusive art studio, Submit To Love. The live ScreenTalk will take place on Thu 11 Mar at 7pm.

In this thought provoking documentary, photos, archival footage and sound recordings tell the story of a pioneering psychiatric institution in 1930s France. The asylum was radically re-thought, with doctors, patients and nurses working side by side to run the facility, with the support of the local community. Patients were respected and integrated and individually supported. They took up roles in the hospital kitchen and on local farms, they published a newspaper, and many pursued flourishing visual art practices.

During the Second World War, the asylum also sheltered refugees and Resistance fighters, among them such figures from the Parisian avant-garde as Paul Éluard, Tristan Tzara, Georges Sadoul and Georges Canguilhem. At the end of the war, another visitor was Jean Dubuffet, whose discovery there of the sculptures by patient and artist Auguste Forestier supported his elaboration of the notion of ‘Art Brut’.

Other available titles on Barbican Cinema on Demand in March include an Architecture on Film presentation of Aalto, an intimate portrait of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, the 20th century’s master of human-centred modernism. Screening for six weeks (15 Mar - 30 Apr), a mixture of letters, home movies, experts’ reflection and an architectural tour reveal his life and work, and the key role played by his wives, architects Aino and Elissa, within it. This month also includes Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo, which takes an in-depth look at the key works from this iconic artist. Using letters Kahlo wrote as a guide, this film reveals her deepest emotions and unlocks the secrets and symbolism contained within her art.

Further highlights include the new releases: Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, a documentary chronicling the life of Poly Styrene, one of the first women of colour to helm a major punk band X-Ray Spex; Song Without a Name, an award-winning drama based on a true story during the height of the political crisis in 1980’s Peru; Mouthpiece, a visceral and captivating film about a writer who struggles to reconcile her feminism with her mother’s conformist life after her sudden death; and Relic, a modern take on the haunted-house genre in which a daughter, mother and grandmother are haunted by a manifestation of dementia that consumes their family's home.

Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival, also screens as part of the New Suns Feminist Literary Festival at the Barbican, this tells the story of the feminist thinker, writer and historian of science Donna Haraway, who shares her life, influences and ideas in this documentary by director Fabrizio Terranova.

Cinema on Demand is available to audiences across the UK with a rolling programme of titles and events that reflect the Barbican’s international cinema programme.

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.

MARCH 2021 LISTINGS

Human Rights Watch Film Festival:
All films are available to stream: from Thu 18 - Fri 26 Mar 2021
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £8
HRWFF pass (enables access to all 10 films throughout the Festival dates)
Standard: £75. Members: £60

Opening Night:
The 8th (12)
(Ireland/USA 2020 Dir Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, Maeve O’Boyle 94min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online Discussion: Thu 18 Mar, 8.30pm

Belly of The Beast (12*)
(USA 2020 Dir Erika Cohn 82min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Fri 19 Mar, 8.30pm

A Thousand Cuts (15*)
(USA 2020 Dir Ramona S Diaz, 98min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Sat 20 Mar, 2pm

I am Samuel (15*)
(Kenya/Canada/UK/USA  2020 Dir Peter Murimi, 86min)
Co-presented by Human Rights Watch Film Festival (18-26 Mar) streaming on Barbican Cinema
On Demand and BFI Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival
(17-28 Mar) streaming on BFI Player.  
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Sat 20 Mar, 8.30pm

The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (12*)
(Canada 2020 Dir Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbott, 106min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Sun 21 Mar, 5pm

Bajo Fuego (Under Siege) (15*)
(Colombia 2020 Dir Sjoerd Van Grootheest, Co-Dir Irene Vélez-Torres, 85min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Sun 21 Mar 8.30pm

A La Calle (To The Street) (15*)
(USA 2020 Dir Nelson G. Navarrete, Maxx Caicedo , 11min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Tue 23 Mar 8.30pm

The Lesson (12*)
(Germany 2020 Dir Elena Horn, 60min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Wed 24 Mar 8.30pm

Mujer de Soldado (Soldier’s Woman) (15*)
(Peru 2020 Dir Patricia Wiesse Risso, 83min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Thur 25 Mar 8.30pm

Closing Night:
Unapologetic (12*)
(USA 2020 Dir Ashley O’Shay, 86min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Free, online discussion: Fri 26 Mar, 8.30pm

To purchase tickets online:
https://ff.hrw.org/london
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/series/cinema-on-demand

Our Lucky Hours (12A*) + ScreenTalk with Sarah Lombardi and Ben Platts-Mills
(France/Switzerland/Belgium 2019, Dir Martine Deyres, 77 min, Digital Presentation)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Available to stream: from Fri 19 Feb - Wed 31 Mar 2021
Pay per view: Full: £5.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £4.00

Song Without a Name (12A)
(2020 Peru Dir Melina León, 97min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Available to stream: 22 Feb - 22 Mar 2021
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members free

Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo (12A)
(UK 2020, Dir Ali Ray, 90 min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Available to stream:  8 Mar – 5 Apr 2021
Pay per view: Full: £5.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £4.00

Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché
(UK 2021, Dir Celeste Bell & Paul Sng, 89 min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Available to stream:  5 Mar –  2 Apr 2021
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £8.00

New Suns Feminist Literary Festival:
Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival (12A)
(2016 Fabrizio Terranova, 90 min)
Available to stream: 5 Mar - 7 Mar 2021
This title is included as part of the New Suns bundle only:
Standard: £25, Digital only: £15

Relic
(Australia 2020, Dir Natalie Erika James, 89 min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Available to stream:  8 Mar – 5 Apr 2021
Pay per view: Full: £4.50 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £3.60

Mouthpiece
(Canada 2018, Dir Patricia Rozema, 91 min)
Barbican Cinema on Demand
Available to stream:  12 Mar – 9 Apr 2021
Pay per view: Full: £10.00 | Young Barbican: £4.00 | Barbican Members £8.00

Box office: The Barbican believes in creating space for people and ideas to connect through 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