Press room

Barbican Cinema
March 2022
barbican.org.uk/whats-on/cinema 
 

Curated by the Barbican: 

• The Gay Men’s Guide to Safer Sex + ScreenTalk with Producer Tony Carne
• Other Modernisms, Other Futures: Global Art Cinema 1960–80
• Adrian Wootton Presents…The Godfather 4K Restoration
• Science on Screen: Run Lola Run + Presentation
  by Stefano Ruffo
• Experiments in Film: Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
• Family Film Club
• Chronic Youth Film Festival 2022
• Architecture on Film: Property
• BBCSO Total Immersion: Zappa
• Oscar Week ®

 Festivals:

• Glasgow Film Festival 2022
• Human Rights Watch Film Festival
• Oska Bright Film Festival 2022

 Event Cinema:

• Met Opera Live in HD: Ariadne auf Naxos
• Royal Opera House Encore: Rigoletto
• Bill Murray’s New Worlds
• Met Opera Live in HD: Don Carlos

On 3 March 2022, the Barbican will mark its 40th birthday and celebrates this landmark anniversary with a bold and eclectic programme, including in its Cinemas.

Other Modernisms, Other Futures: Global Art Cinema 1960-80 (3-31 Mar), is a season of six films from Iran, USSR, India, Bolivia, Senegal and Cuba, which showcase an array of cinematic modernisms – innovative and risk-taking films – by filmmakers who thought of their films as interventions in contemporary social, political, or ideological debates, as a contribution towards new possibilities and new worlds.

Barbican Cinema also presents, on its 30th anniversary, a rare screening of the ground-breaking gay sex ed documentary The Gay Men’s Guide to Safer Sex (1992), (1 Mar) followed by a ScreenTalk with producer Tony Carne and film curator Selina Robinson.

Family Film Club will mark the upcoming International Women’s Day (5 Mar) with a specially curated programme of shorts made by female filmmakers from all over the world, including Evgenia Golubeva’s award winning comedy The Witch and the Baby.  
The programme will be screened with HOH captions and introduction will be BSL interpreted.

Also as part of the 40th anniversary weekend celebrations is a 4K restoration screening of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola’s era defining crime drama with a special presentation from Adrian Wootton OBE.

Other programme highlights in March include Chronic Youth Film Festival 2022 (12-13 Mar), a weekend of international films questioning home, hope and hostility, curated by the Barbican Young Film Programmers.

In partnership with Barbican Cinema, Human Rights Watch Film Festival (17-25 Mar), returns to London for its 26th edition with a programme of 10 films and conversations with filmmakers, film subjects and human rights advocates, presented in Cinema 1 and online. The Barbican will also host a selection of highlights from the Glasgow Film Festival (2-13 Mar).

The red carpet will be rolled out for Oscar Week ® (25-31 Mar) which returns to the Barbican, allowing film fans to catch up with some of the nominees and many of the short films in competition at this year’s Academy Awards.  

The new regular series, Experiments in Film continues in March with Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania , which coincides with the centenary of the birth of Jonas Mekas, in this the filmmaker looks back through footage he shot when he first arrived in New York, and visiting his family back in Lithuania.

In March, Architecture on Film, curated by the Architecture Foundation, presents the UK premiere of the satirical docudrama Property + ScreenTalk with activist-director Penny Allen, which was a prize winner at the first ever Sundance Film Festival in 1978. Allen’s satirical docudrama tackles gentrification through an eccentric collective’s attempts to save their neighbourhood by purchasing the residential block in Portland, Oregan; and Science on Screen, presented in partnership with the London Mathematical Laboratory, features a screening of Run Lola Run + Presentation by Professor Stefano Ruffo.

For opera fans, Event Screenings in March include Met Opera (Live in HD) productions of: Ariadne auf Naxos and Don Carlos; and Royal Opera House Encore screening of Verdi’s Rigoletto. There’s a special presentation of Bill Murray’s New Worlds, which took place one glorious Greek evening and featured screen legend Bill Murray and world renowned cellist Jan Vogler, who rocked the Acropolis with a timeless mix of music, literature and poetry. Music lovers will also be able to enjoy a BBC SO Total Immersion screening of Zappa, Alex Winter’s new landmark documentary which explores the cult of Frank Zappa, the music and the phenomenon – both on the stage and off it.

Curated by the Barbican:

The Gay Men’s Guide to Safer Sex (18) + ScreenTalk with producer Tony Carne
UK 1992, Dir David Lewis, 50 min
Tue 1 Mar, 6.30 pm, Cinema 2

To mark its 30th anniversary Cinema will present a rare screening of the landmark gay sex ed documentary, The Gay Men’s Guide to Safer Sex.

Made in association with the Terrence Higgins Trust, when the age of consent for gay and bi men was 21, The Gay Men’s Guide to Safer Sex was a vital sex educational doc that offered safe sex advice (which had been absent from information communicated by Margaret Thatcher’s government) in an artistic and unashamedly erotic piece of cinema. Filmed for a home video audience, the picture and audio quality reflect the time it was made.
Following the screening, the producer Tony Carne and curator Selina Robinson will discuss the making of the film and its legacy.

This screening complements the Out and About! Archiving LGBTQ+ history at Bishopsgate Institution exhibition in The Curve.

Other Modernisms, Other Futures:  Global Art Cinema 1960-80
Thu 3 Mar – Thu 31 Mar, Cinema 2

To view the full press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/other-modernisms-other-futures-global-art-cinema-1960-80

In March Barbican Cinema presents Other Modernisms, Other Futures: Global Art Cinema, a season which looks at the period between 1960-80 when filmmakers created new innovative, risk-taking approaches to cinema. Typically considered to be a movement defined by Western cinema, this season instead features six films made by modernist directors from across the world.

Filmmakers outside the West were addressing the social and political issues of the time, such as anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and nation building, and were also finding new ways to express themselves.

Other Modernisms, Other Futures: Global Art Cinema (1960-80) samples a cross-section of this filmmaking, including:  Downpour by Bahram Beyzaie (Iran, 1972); July Rain by Marlen Khutsiev (USSR, 1967); Interview by Mrinal Sen (India, 1971), Blood of the Condor by Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Collective (Bolivia, 1971); Fad’Jal by Safi Fay (Senegal, 1971) and De Cierta Manera by Sara Gómez (Cuba, 1971).

Adrian Wootton Presents... The Godfather (15) 4K Restoration
US 1972, Dir Francis Ford Coppola, 175 min
Sun 6 Mar, 2.00 pm, Cinema 1

Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning 3 for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, this is the chance to see this true American classic in the style it was intended.

In his illustrated introduction, Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London (and Coppola aficionado) delves into the behind the scenes drama and the making of this Hollywood classic.

Science on Screen: Run Lola Run (15) + Presentation by
Professor Stefano Ruffo
Germany 1998, Dir Tom Twyker, 77 min
Tue 8 Mar, 6.15 pm, Cinema 2

Lola (Franka Potente) receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni: he needs 100,000 Deutschmarks in the next twenty minutes, or else he’ll be killed.

Playing with time and the butterfly effect, director Tom Twyker’s frenetic adventure sees Lola’s run three different times, with three different outcomes, focussing on how even the smallest details can have a huge effect:  in this case, whether Manni lives or dies.  

Presenting before the screening, Professor Stefano Ruffo, Professor at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati in Trieste Italy, explores connections between the film’s narrative and the scientific concept of sensitivity to initial conditions.

Presented in partnership with the London Mathematical Laboratory.

Experiments in Film: Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (#)
UK/ West Germany 1972, Dir Jonas Mekas, 88 min
Wed 9 Mar, 6.30 pm, Cinema 2

A landmark work from the filmmaking pioneer Jonas Mekas, here he reflects on his life through footage shot across three distinct moments, largely structured around his time in America and Lithuania. In an intensely personal manner, Mekas uses voiceover and text to share memories on his initial arrival in America from Lithuania 1950–1953, filmed on his Bolex camera.

The second section was shot in 1971 in Semeniškiai, the village in Lithuania where Mekas was born. The footage making up these sequences was shot during his first return to his family’s hometown, after a gap of 25 years. The third part of the film is marked by parentheses, showing a camp in Hamburg where the artist was held following the Second World War, before concluding with sequences shot with artists and critic friends, across Austria. A moving reflection on the role of making art as a mode of self-care.

Family Film Club
Every Saturday 11am, Cinema 2

Family Film Club will celebrate the upcoming International Women’s Day – on Sat 5 Mar - with a specially curated programme of children’s shorts made by female filmmakers from all over the world. Highlights include the hilarious, award winning animation, The Witch and the Baby (Russia 2020) and ScreenTalk with the director Evgenia Golubeva.

The programme will be screened with HOH captions and introduction will be BSL interpreted. More films to be announced soon.

Chronic Youth Film Festival 2022
12 – 13 Mar
Barbican Cinema 2

To view the full press release:
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/chronic-youth-festival-2022

Chronic Youth Film Festival 2022 opens Sat 12 Mar with: Rooted: an exploration of ‘home’ in the face of an increasingly hostile environment. Specially curated by the Barbican Young Film Programmers, this is a collection of short films from the UK, focusing on communities and creators whose sense of home has been destabilised as a result of the recent ‘hostile environment’.

Other programme highlights include: Mother (UK/Brazil 2020, Dir Jas Pitt & Kate Stonehill) a Brazillian documentary celebrating the queer community and the art of ‘voguing’, El Planeta (Spain 2021), a playful tragicomedy about a mother-daughter duo in face of eviction; and the UK premiere of L’école de l’espoir (Morocco 2020, Dir. Mohamed El Aboudi), a  poignant documentary about the nomadic Oulad Boukais Tribe (in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains) and the struggles their younger generation face.

Architecture on Film: UK Premiere: Property (#) + ScreenTalk
with Penny Allen

US 1978, Dir Penny Allen, 92 min
Mon 14 Mar, 8.40pm, Cinema 1

Activist-director Penny Allen’s satirical docudrama tackles gentrification through an eccentric collective’s attempts to save their neighbourhood by purchasing a residential Portland block.

A prize-winner at the first ever Sundance Film Festival in 1978, this was adapted from Allen’s real life experience of a local community’s fight against their neighbourhood’s pending sale, demolition and erasure. Property offers a playful and political time-capsule of 1970s social and cinematic ideas and ideals.

Barbican Cinema is delighted that director Penny Allen will be present for a Screentalk, following the UK premiere of her film.

Curated by the Architecture Foundation

BBCSO Total Immersion: Zappa (15)

USA 2020, Dir Alex Winter, 127 min
Sat 19 Mar, 11:00, Cinema 1

The perfect introduction to Frank Zappa, Alex Winter’s landmark documentary explores the man, the music and the phenomenon. Benefiting from unfettered access to the Zappa family trust’s wealth of archival footage, it examines the private life behind one of the most extraordinary musical careers of the last century – and the music it produced. 
 
Oscar Week ®
25 – 31 Mar, Cinema 3

March is Awards month, so the Barbican is popping the prosecco and celebrating the biggest films of the year with screenings of some of the films nominated at the 94th Academy Awards. The programme includes Best Picture nominees, International Feature nominees and many of the short films in competition.

Presented in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Festivals

Glasgow Film Festival
2-12 Mar, Cinemas 1&2  

Barbican Cinema is delighted to screen the opening film of the Glasgow Film Festival, the UK premiere of The Outfit (USA 2022, Dir Graham Moore), a gripping tale of deception, double-dealing and murder; and the closing night gala Murina (Croatia/ Brazil/ US 2022, Dir Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic), in which a teenage girl decides to replace her controlling father with his wealthy foreign friend, during a weekend trip to the Adriatic Sea.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival
17-25 Mar, Cinema 1 and online

Human Rights Watch Film Festival returns for its 26th edition, offering fresh perspectives and critical insights on human rights concerns impacting people around the world (programme info available from Thu 10 Feb).

Oska Bright Film Festival 2022
21 March, Cinema 3

Oska Bright Film Festival is the world’s leading festival for films made by or featuring people with learning disabilities or autism. This film programme presents a selection of highlights from the Festival, which will be happening at the same time in Brighton and at cinemas across the UK. Oska Bright is out to change the way people see cinema by showing bold, different stories, from unheard voices, from across the world.

Event Cinema

Met Opera Live in HD: Ariadne auf Naxos (12A)
Sat 12 Mar, 5.55pm, Cinema 1

The exhilarating soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine of Strauss’s enchanting masterpiece. The outstanding cast also features mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as the Composer of the opera within-an-opera.

Royal Opera House Encore: Rigoletto (12A)
Sun 13 Mar, 2pm, Cinema 3

In a pitiless world of luxurious decadence, corruption and social decay, Director of The Royal Opera Oliver Mears sets his scene.

Verdi’s thrilling Rigoletto pits power against innocence, beauty against ugliness, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.

Bill Murray’s New Worlds (#)
USA/ Greece 2021, Dir  Andrew Muscato, 102 min
Tue 22 Mar, 6.20pm, Cinema 2

Screen legend Bill Murray and world-renowned cellist Jan Vogler rock the Acropolis with a timeless mix of music, literature and poetry. Captured on film by director Andrew Muscato, Murray and Vogler are joined by Mira Wang (violin) and Vanessa Perez (piano).

The international quartet enchants the Athenian audience from the 2,000-year-old stage of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus with musical reflections on love, hope and heartbreak. Spanning from Bach to Van Morrison, Whitman to West Side Story, the wildly entertaining, humorous and deeply touching program is infused with the one-of-a-kind charm of Bill Murray.

Met Opera Live in HD: Don Carlos (12A)

Sat 26 Mar, 4pm, Cinema 1

For the first time, the Met presents the original five-act French version of Verdi’s epic opera of doomed love among royalty.

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a starry cast, including tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role, soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Élisabeth de Valois, and mezzo-soprano Elna Garanca as Eboli.

New Releases  
 
For the latest information on new release screenings in the Barbican Cinemas and Cinema On Demand please visit the Barbican website.  
 
The Barbican believes in creating space for people and ideas to connect though 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