Press room

Curated by the Barbican:

• Her Lens, His Story: Female Directors and Masculinities
• Cunningham + ScreenTalk with director Alla Kovgan & Philip Selway
• Human Rights Watch Film Festival
• Chronic Youth Film Festival 2020
• Architecture on Film: Into Great Silence (Die Große Stille)
• Family Film Club

     Event Cinema:

• Royal Opera House Live: The Cellist/Dances at a Gathering
• Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets: Live at the Roundhouse
• Afternoon Arts: Stage Russia: The Brothers Karamazov
• Met Opera Live: Der Fliegende Holländer
• Royal Opera House Live: Fidelio
• Afternoon Arts: Exhibition on Screen: Lucian Freud: A Self Portrait

Curated by the Barbican:

Her Lens, His Story: Female Directors and Masculinities

26 Feb–10 Mar, Cinema 1&3

Continuing into March, Her Lens, His Story shows how great female directors from around the world have reversed the traditional male gaze to give us complex and empathetic male characters across multiple genres, including film noirs, melodramas, comedies and war movies. 

This month’s screenings include Destiny Ekaragha’s comedic take on two brother’s rivalry in the Peckham-based Gone Too Far! (UK/ Nigeria 2013), introduced by Ekaragha herself; Shahrbanoo Sadat’s nuanced account about boyhood relationships in The Orphanage (2019, Denmark/ Afghanistan) and Anahi Berneri’s award winning A Year Without Love (2005 Argentina), about a gay man living with HIV, looking for love in Buenos Aires. We also present rare screenings of Edith Carlmar’s Nordic noir Death is a Caress (1949 Norway) and Larisa Shepitko’s masterly war movie The Ascent (1977 Soviet Union).  All screenings will have introductions.

This is part of Inside Out, a year-long Barbican cross arts season exploring the relationship between our inner lives and creativity, and all screenings will have introductions and complements the Barbican Art Gallery show Masculinities: Liberation through Photography opening on 20 February.

For further information:
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2020/series/her-lens-his-story
To view the full press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/her-lens-his-story-female-directors-and-masculinities
 

Cunningham U + ScreenTalk with director Alla Kovgan & Philip Selway
Germany/ France/ USA 2019, Dir Alla Kovgan, 93 min
Wed 11 Mar 6.30pm, Cinema 1

The iconic Merce Cunningham and the last generation of his dance company is profiled in Alla Kovgan's documentary, through recreations of his landmark works and archival footage of Cunningham, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Following the screening, film director Alla Kovgan will take part in a conversation to discuss the artistic evolution of Merce Cunningham, with Philip Selway of Radiohead.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival
12–20 Mar, Cinema 1, 2 & 3

Human Rights Watch Film Festival returns to the Barbican with a programme of documentaries and dramas that bears witness to human rights violations through direct storytelling and exposé form. The festival is a forum for courageous filmmakers and film subjects to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference. The full programme will be announced on 6 February.

Chronic Youth Film Festival 2020
Sat 28–29 Mar

The Barbican Young Programmers have curated an international roster of films for Chronic Youth Festival 2020 to challenge perspectives and find experiences we all share.

Celebrating its 5th year, the festival champions overlooked narratives and explores how young people carve out spaces for themselves within communities against hostile or indifferent social and political landscapes.

The programme includes the UK premiere of Q’s barbershop (Denmark 2019, Dir Emil Langballe), a light hearted and captivating insight into black masculinity in Denmark from a barber shop; and a special preview of the British film Rocks (UK 2019), a heart-warming depiction of teenage girlhood in London highlighting the importance of friendships, and ScreenTalk with the director Sarah Gavron and members of the cast.

Other festival highlights include Una banda des chicas (Argentina, 2019, Dir Marilina Giménez), a sonically charged exploration of all-women bands in Argentina’s male dominated music industry; and A First Farewell (Lina Wang, China, 2018), an account of two young Uighur children navigating the effects of state enforced cultural homogenisation in north-eastern China.

These films are connected by a thread, young people shaping their realities in order to reconcile what is real with what is ideal.

Architecture on Film: Into Great Silence (Die Große Stille)
(Germany, 2005, Philip Gröning, 169 min)
Tues 31 March, Cinema 1, 7.00pm

This Sundance winning documentary observes the ascetic Carthusian order of the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps.
A truly transcendent film that more than depicting a monastery, becomes a monastery itself. Meditative, experiential, elemental, pure cinema.

Curated by the Architecture Foundation in partnership with the Barbican. 

Family Film Club
Every Saturday 11am, Cinema 2

March’s films will all be looking at inner worlds and dreamscapes as part of the Barbican’s Inside Out annual theme; there will also be a special Show and Tell taking place at the beginning of the month.

Event Cinema

Royal Opera House Live: The Cellist/Dances at a Gathering 12A*
Sun 1 Mar 2pm, Cinema 3

Choreographer Cathy Marston’s inspiration for this piece is the life and career of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré. A new work by Liam Scarlett provides the second part of the programme.

Afternoon Arts: Stage Russia: The Brother Karamazov 12A*
Thu 12 Mar 2pm, Cinema 2

The Brothers Karamazov novel is the epitome of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s creative work, the acme of the philosophic investigation carried out by this colossal and restless mind throughout his life.

Met Opera Live: Der Fliegende Holländer 12A*
Sat 14 Mar 4.55pm, Cinema 1

Sir Bryn Terfel returns to the Met for the first time since 2012 as the mysterious seafarer searching for salvation in this co-production with L’Opéra de Québec and Dutch National Opera Amsterdam.

Royal Opera House Live: Fidelio 12A*
Sun 22 Mar 2pm, Cinema 3

Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new production, conducted by Antonio Pappano and Jonas Kaufmann as the political prisoner Florestan.

Afternoon Arts: Exhibition on Screen: Lucian Freud: A Self Portrait #
UK 2020, Dir David Bickerstaff, 80 min
Thu 26 Mar 2pm, Cinema 2

This compelling film reveals the life and work of a modern master though a unique exhibition of his self-portraits. His unflinching gaze has produced a body of powerful and figurative works.
 

New Releases:
Please note this programme is subject to change:

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
USA 2019, Dir Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, 120 min 
From Fri 6 Mar
In this documentary author Toni Morrison leads a group of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, history, America and the human condition. 

Cunningham
Germany/ France/ USA 2019, Dir Alla Kovgan, 93 min
From Fri 13 Mar
Director Alla Kovgan charts the work of icon Merce Cunningham and the last generation of his dance company in this documentary, through recreations of his landmark works and archival footage.

The Truth
France/ Japan 2019, Dirs Hirokazu Koreeda, 106 min
From Fri 20 Mar
Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve, this drama explores a stormy reunion between an actress and her daughter after the actress publishes her memoirs. 

Mulan
USA 2020, Dir Niki Caro, 98 min
From Fri 27 Mar
A stunning live-action reimagining of the Disney classic. To saver her ailing father from serving in the Imperial Army, a fearless Mulan disguises herself as a man to take his place. 

The Perfect Candidate
Saudi Arabia/ Germany 2019, Dir Haifaa Al-Mansour, 101 min
From Fri 27 Mar
This Saudi Arabian drama follows a determined young doctor as she runs in the local city elections, but her family and community struggle to accept their town’s first female candidate.

Ticket prices:
Box office: 020 7638 8891 www.barbican.org.uk

Her Lens, His Story: Female Directors and Masculinities:
Standard ticket price: £12/ Members: £9.60/ Concessions: £11/ Young Barbican: £5
* Local Classification

Chronic Youth tickets:
Standard: £10.50, Barbican Members: £8.40, Concs: £9.50, Young Barbican: £5.00

New releases/Film festivals: Standard: £12.00, Barbican Members: £9.60
Concessions: £11.00, Under 18s: £6.50, Young Barbican: £5.50 /£10.50

Monday Madness: £6.00

(New Release films only) Student Tuesdays £5.00

Event Cinema screenings: £15 - £38

Afternoon Arts screenings: £10.50, Barbican Members £8.40, Concs £9.50,
Young Barbican £5
Barbican Family Film Club:  £2.50 Child / £3.50 Adult
No unaccompanied adults or children
Parent and Baby Screenings: £6 
* Local Classification   # Certificate to be confirmed