by Fringe! programmer Martha Margetson
Tearoom, dir William E. Jones
The full LSFF programme has just dropped for 2018, the festival’s 15th birthday, and it is [fire emoji] [fire emoji]. As anyone who’s been able to have a peruse will tell you, the whole programme is [fire emoji], with vital new partnerships, industry events and special presentations, but here are our top queer picks for Fringe! friends and fam to seek out.
Superdyke Meets Madame X, dir Barbara Hammer
Making our hearts fly with excitement is a special Barbara Hammer event, Radical Softness through a Haptic Lens featuring her classic DYKETACTICS, infamous SUPERDYKE MEETS MADAME X, and recently restored Chick Strand work SOFT FICTIONS. Barbara Hammer skypes in to join us for a Q&A with Club des Femmes goddess Selina Robertson. (13 Jan, ICA)
The Cricket and the Ant, dir Julia Ritschel
Later that night is the first installation of New Queer Visions: Don’t Look Back in Anger, which amasses films chronicling heartbreak, romantic return, and the function of memory in queer love connections. A programme that queers the notion of eternal recurrence seen in such films as Eternal Sunshine. (13 Jan, Moth Club)
The next day LSFF host a special screening of Daughters of the Dust, Julie Dash’s iconic 1991 portrait of the Black women of Gullah and their struggle to retain traditions over generations. The influence of Daughters’ cinematography on today’s visual culture can’t be overstated. (14 Jan, Moth Club)
The Body Beautiful, dir Ngozi Onwurah
Later than night sees a retrospective of Ngozi Onwurah’s films as LSFF screen Onwurah’s vital cinematic images of blackness in a long overdue retrospective of her work. A stunning programme filled with personal stories of British black womanhood with socio-political consciousness. There will also be a panel on Onwurah’s career with Ngozi herself in attendance, alongside producer Simon Onwurah, and actors Hilja Lindsay-Muwonge and Sian Ejiwume-Le Berre. Includes the unmissable mother-daughter film The Body Beautiful. (17 Jan, ICA)
Make sure to catch a screening of Chris Kraus’ shorts, Cruelty and Crime. From feminist readings of Antonin Artaud to Cold War sleeper agents, via dominatrices and New York City crime scenes, these funny shorts from acclaimed writer of ‘I Love Dick’ Kraus form an exceptional programme. Writer and editor of Afterall, David Morris, filmmaker Ruth Novaczek and the writer Joanna Walsh join for a post-screening discussion of Kraus’ films. (18 Jan, ICA)
Fringe! Director Alex Karotsch speaks on LSFF Industry panel Let’s Talk About Sex with other industry pros. Come discuss the practical and ethical issues of exploring sexual desire on film. In partnership with Docheads. (18 Jan, Moth Club)
Another industry event that caught our eye is Female Collectives. Talk to the women driving change in film with this line up of superstars: Club des Femmes’ Selina Robertson, Bechdel Test Fest’s Corrina Antrobus, I Am Dora’s Jemma Desai, and Final Girls, Anna Bogutskaya and Olivia Howe. (19 Jan, Moth Club)
Innocence, dir Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Attendees may also be interested in a day of events looking at female auteur Lucile Hadzihalilovic. Don’t miss this day of celebration of Hadzihalilovic’s distinct auteurship; the director’s films from the 90s onwards express a texture and sensuality over topics of teen sexuality and human perception. The event begins with a programme of her shorts at midday, followed by a screening of Hadzihalilovic’s first feature Innocence, set in a secluded girls’ boarding school and starring Marion Cotillard. (20 Jan, Curzon Soho)
Closing night Home Girls is comprised of a screening From Cookie Crew to Now, which gathers onscreen representations of women in hip hop with a special guest panel, and closing night party with Paigey Cakey heading a stellar line up, this ICA takeover celebrates the journey and legacy of the female MC. Tun up. (20 Jan, ICA)
But the fun doesn’t end with Home Girls as the next day LSFF host a programme of New Shorts: Highly In/Visible. This exciting programme of new work considers visibility in the context or religion, race, sexuality and gender, chronicling people’s becoming visible. Especially enlightening are Amrou Al-Kadhi’s auto-biographical Run(a)way Arab, and lesbian sci-fi short Joey. (21 Jan, Curzon Soho)
Tearoom, dir William E. Jones
We’ll also be hoping to catch this incredibly exciting event: ‘Originally filmed in 1962 by the Ohio police’ … Video artist William E. Jones’ cruising and police surveillance exploration Tearoom screens in full, alongside Robert Yang’s video game response The Tearoom which, when censored, the artist replaced all visible genitals with guns to secure release. To discuss the issues raised by this video game response, this act of censor evasion, and by Jones’ original work which repurposes surveillance footage in a vital comment on public space, LSFF amasses artist Prem Sahib, filmmaker Sam Ashby, Robert Yang & Dr. Fiona Anderson for a panel. (21 Jan, ICA)
WOLVES, dir Maria Balduzzi
LSFF treat us to another New Queer Visions screening of lengthier, or ‘meatier’ shorts in their Medium Rare programme: 5 longer shorts about queer sexual desire and expression, including the infamous Sodom’s Cat by Fox Huang. (21 Jan, ICA)
