Press room

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:

• Eat the Screen: Films to Feed Conversations About Food
• Outdoor Cinema
• differently various – Curated by Headway East London

Regular Programme strands:

• Cinema Restored: The Films of Camille Billops and James Hatch:
  Finding Christa, A String of Pearl, The KKK Boutique Ain’t Just Rednecks, Suzanne, Suzanne + Take Your Bags
• Senior Community Screenings
• Relaxed Screenings
• Pay What You Can Screenings

Event Cinema:  

• The Hiding Place
• Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote

In August the Barbican is delighted to present a late summer programme of Outdoor Cinema Screenings, taking place Wed 23 Aug – Sun 3 Sep, in the iconic setting of the Sculpture Court.

Building on the success of the last two editions, the programme has something for all cinematic tastes including: Rear Window, Black Panther, Monsoon Wedding, Amazing Grace, Hero, Paris is Burning, Singin' in the Rain and more.     

Further highlights this month include the second helping of Eat the Screen: Films to Feed Conversations About Food, a major season of films and conversations taking place across July and August exploring food and food cultures; and differently various, a relaxed programme of films that complements the differently various exhibition, taking place in the Curve (Sat 29 Jul - Sun 6 Aug), and is curated by members of the Haggerston-based brain injury charity Headway East London.

In response to the exhibition Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now in the Barbican Art Gallery (Thu 22 Jun - Sun 3 Sep), The Films of Camille Billops and James Hatch screens five titles across two cinema events from the trailblazing artist and polymath Camille Billops (1933–2019), and her partner in life and work James Hatch (1928–2020), who worked together over several decades and made a series of autobiographical films, which explore and the interior workings of Black cultural life, through the prism of their extended families and friends.

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:

Eat The Screen: Films to Feed Conversations About Food

Sat 1 Jul – Thu 24 Aug

Cinema 2 & 3

Food is at the heart of our cultures and identities, but increasingly it is also at the centre of contemporary debates around sustainability, farming, the power of big supermarkets, food waste, and whether (or not) to eat meat or animal products. 

This curated season of short films, features and documentaries – many with introductions and ScreenTalks – will feed into these discussions, and celebrates the universal riches found in home cooking, locally-produced ingredients, a shared meal and a favourite local restaurant.

Foodies, growers, cooks and environmentalists will find plenty to chew over; the Aug programme begins with Agnes Varda’s Gleaners and I + Introduction, in which the filmmaker interviews an array of foragers, freegans and activists all upholding the ancient French tradition of “gleaning”; this follows with Carla Simon’s Alcarràs based on the director’s own experience growing up on a peach farm, this complex, sensitive film considers the pressures of market forces on a family farm. 
 

Further screenings include The Villains + ScreenTalk with director Daniele De Michele, who considers whether traditional Italian ingredients and cooking can survive; and Meat + Introduction, in which the documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman shows how livestock are raised, sold, and processed in America; this is no outraged exposé, but a clear-eyed account of the selling, the making and marketing of meat.
 

For further information: www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2023/series/eat-the-screen

To view the full press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/barbican-cinema-eat-the-screen-films-to-feed-conversations-about-food

Outdoor Cinema Screenings
Wed 23 Aug – Sun 3 Sep
Barbican Sculpture Court

This year’s Outdoor Cinema programme is developed in collaboration with producers and programmers across artforms at the Barbican and has something for all cinematic tastes.
Taking place in the dramatic setting of the Sculpture Court, the official drinks’ sponsor Campari and the Barbican are inviting audiences to enjoy a complimentary Campari Spritz, or a Crodino non-alcoholic aperitivo, with every ticket purchased.

Mirror (U)
Soviet Union 1975, Dir Andrei Tarkovsky, 106 min
Wed 23 Aug, 8.30pm

Hero (12)

China 2002, Dir Zhang Yimou, 99 min
Thu 24 Aug, 8.30pm

The Last Waltz (U)
US 1978, Dir Martin Scorsese, 117 minutes
Fri 25 Aug, 8.30pm

Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind (PG)
Japan 1984, Dir Hayao Miyazaki, 117 min
Sat 26 Aug, 8.30pm

Rear Window (PG)
USA 1954, Dir Alfred Hitchcock, 114 min
Sun 27 Aug, 8.30pm

Amazing Grace (U)
USA 2018, Dir Sydney Pollack, Alan Elliot, 120 min
Wed 30 Aug, 8.30pm

Paris is Burning (15)
USA 1990, Dir Jennie Livingston, 78 min
Thu 31 Aug, 8.30pm

Black Panther (12A)
USA 2018, Dir Ryan Coogler, 134 min
Fri 1 Sep, 8.15pm

Monsoon Wedding (15)
India/ US/ Italy/ Germany/ France/ UK 2001, Dir Mira Nair, 109 min
Sat 2 Sep, 8.15pm

Singin' in the Rain (U)

USA 1951, Dir Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 103 min
Sun 3 Sep, 8.15pm

For further information: www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2023/series/outdoor-cinema

To view the full press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/barbican-summer-outdoor-cinema-screenings
 

differently various – film programme

Relaxed Screening
Wed 2 Aug, 6.30 pm, Cinema 3

A special evening exploring the hidden experience of brain injury through the films of Posy Dixon and Zara Joan Miller, featuring members of Headway East London, a charity supporting people affected by brain injury.

Discover the creative process behind BAFTA-nominated director Posy Dixon‘s film Chaos/Quest (UK 2020), filmed whilst an artist-in-residence at Submit to Love Studios in 2020, Headway East London’s dedicated art studio for artists with a brain injury. Film-maker Zara Joan Miller will talk about the inspiration behind her documentary short, Portrait of Tony, and their collaboration behind the film.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and members of the brain injury support charity Headway East London, sharing their process of making the films together.

This event complements the differently various exhibition, curated by Headway East London’s members, which runs Sat 29 Jul - Sun 6 Aug in The Curve.

Regular Programme strands:

Cinema Restored: The Films of Camille Billops and James Hatch

Thu 17—Thu 24 Aug 2023

Presenting these films, in response to the exhibition Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now in the Barbican Art Gallery, expands on the artists’ recurring focus on interior spaces and the lives of Black women, providing a narrativised exploration of Black domestic spaces and the inter-generational relationships between Black women.

Finding Christa + A String of Pearls (15*)

Thu 17 Aug, 6.30 pm, Cinema 2
These films explore experiences of Camille Billops relatives, consisting of intimate cross-generational conversations exploring how the family, or lack of, has shaped their lives.

A String of Pearls - 2K Digitisation
USA, 2002, 56 min

Billops, having explored the women in her family and the importance of female relationships, turns her focus to the men, focusing on multiple generations of men in her family and their experiences of urban violence, unemployment and the absence of fathers in their lives.

Finding Christa - 2K Digitisation
USA 1991, 55 min

In this extremely personal work, Billops explores why she gave up her daughter for adoption, through conversations with her now adult daughter Christa, and their extended family networks.

The KKK Boutique Ain’t Just Rednecks, Suzanne, Suzanne + Take Your Bags
Thu 24 Aug, 6.30 pm, Cinema 2

Across three very different films, Billops and Hatch explore troubling experiences from Billop’s direct family, and how race, gender and class shape everyday life.

The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks - 2K Digitisation
USA 1994, 76 mins

An essay film playfully exploring, through performance, cabaret and interviews, questions relating to interracial marriage, creating a survey and exploration of the lived experiences of racial discrimination.

Suzanne, Suzanne - 4K Restoration
USA 1982, 30 mins

A seminal work focusing on Billops' niece Suzanne Browning, as she discusses the abuse she had suffered from her father, and the effect this had on her path to substance abuse.

Take Your Bags
USA 1998, 11 mins

In an intimate conversation with a young boy, Camille Billops teaches him of the legacy of slavery and the theft of cultural memory.

Event Cinema:

The Hiding Place
USA 2022, Dir Laura Matula, 153 min
Wed 16 Aug, 8.10 pm, Cinema 2

In the Netherlands, Corrie Ten Boom and her family risk everything to hide Jewish refugees by the hundreds and ultimately face the consequences when they are discovered.

Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote
Australia 1973, Dir Rudolf Nureyev & Robert Helpmann, 111 min
Sun 20 Aug, 2.10 pm, Cinema 3

Filmed in 1973 over 25 days, Rudolf Nureyev and Sir Robert Helpmann, along with The Australian Ballet created Don Quixote, the film.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, for the first time cinema audiences around the world will be able to enjoy the re-mastered, restored and re-orchestrated version. 

Senior Community Screenings

Every second Mon, 11am, Cinema 2

The Barbican welcomes 60+ cinema goers, plus guest to enjoy the latest new releases every second Monday morning. For up-to-date programme information:

www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/series/senior-community-screenings

Relaxed Screenings

One Friday daytime and one Monday evening per month Barbican Cinema welcome cinema goers to an environment that is specially tailored for a neurodiverse audience, as well as those who find a more informal setting beneficial.

For up-to-date programme information:
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/series/relaxed-screenings

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.

For up-to-date programme information:
www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/series/pay-what-you-can-cinema-screenings
 

ENDS