Neighbourhood news, features, and comment
This year’s BFI London Film Festival features full-length movies, many short films to watch free online, and plenty of free events including screen talks (one with musician David Byrne, amongst many others), Q and As and much more both online and in person. Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in Ammonite. This Saturday, 17 October, sees …
The increasing cost of housing and the lack of homes for ordinary people is happening because the wishes of global capital are serviced over and above the needs of the many. As Architects for Social Housing have observed: “Building more homes does not push house and rental prices down. While the law of supply and demand …
Continue reading "Film: Reclaim housing as a human right, not a commodity"
One of British cinema's most controversial films, and which was shot on location in and around Rathbone Street in Fitzrovia, will be screened on Friday and followed by a Q&A. Peeping Tom (1960) nearly ruined director Michael Powell's career after it was badly received due to its scenes of voyeurism and violence. But it held …
Continue reading "Powell’s film masterpiece set in a shadowy Fitzrovia on big screen"
The ninth edition of the Open City Documentary Festival opens this week and runs for seven days at various venues in central London. Celebrating the art of non-fiction, the festival champions the art of creative documentary and non-fiction filmmakers from around the world. Aside from film the events include audio and cross media, as well …
Continue reading "Film festival celebrates the art of non-fiction at London venues"
Filming on several streets in Fitzrovia will start this week for a new British movie directed by Edgar Wright, who gained success with Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Baby Driver. The scenes for Last Night in Soho are due to be shot over five days between Monday 29 July and Wednesday 7 August. …
The camp outside Calais known as the "Jungle", once home to thousands of people, was demolished by French authorities in 2016. Now a new film tells the story of the camp from a refugee's perspective. In Another Life was shot on location in the Calais Jungle and through a fictional story focuses on Adnan a …
The streets in and around Fitzrovia are home to a number of picture houses and film clubs. Some well-known and others a little hidden from view. Here's our round up of places to catch a good movie. Charlotte Street Hotel Film Club, 15-17 Charlotte Street London W1T 1RJ. Enjoy a meal in the restaurant and …
Continue reading "Bourgeois and proletarian cinema in and around Fitzrovia"
A new film called Sleeping Rough will dramatise the lives of three people who tell their stories of how they came to be homeless and living on the streets. Henry Aughterson, a third year medical student at University College London (UCL) and who lives in Camden, took part in research for the film and told Fitzrovia News about the project …
Continue reading "Makers of docudrama hope to educate people about the realities of sleeping rough"
A long-established gallery in Fitzrovia is holding a major exhibition of film posters at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the venue's very first Festival of Film. The Movie Poster Art Gallery has been in Fitzrovia for nearly 20 years. Originally it opened in Newman Street in 1997 and then moved to its current …
Continue reading "Fitzrovia gallery holds film poster exhibition at Albert Hall"
It was 40 years ago this year that rock group the Sex Pistols released their first single Anarchy In The UK and launched a cultural phenomenon that would change music and fashion forever. Now a year-long retrospective of the movement that attacked the establishment, mocked the British monarchy and sent the media into apoplexy is celebrating …
Continue reading "Documentary film festival to celebrate punk ruby jubilee"
The 25th London Latin American Film Festival opens this month, with three venues in and around Fitzrovia taking part. Cinemagoers get free entry to all films screened as part of the festival in London, which showcases the best of new Latin American cinema. The Bolivar Hall, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and …
Continue reading "Latin American film fiesta celebrates 25 years"
This Thursday there will be a free screening in Maple Street of Turkish director Atalay Tasdiken's award-winning 2009 film Mommo. Set in rural Anatolia, Mommo (The Bogeyman) tells the story of a young boy and his even younger sister who are abandoned by their father after he remarries after the death of their mother. Left …
A gallery in Tottenham Street is currently hosting an interactive exhibition of contemporary film posters and photographs, and features a model cinema made of Lego bricks. There is also a film quiz, a poster design class, and a chance to win cinema tickets. State of the Art Cinema is presented by the Film Distributors' Association which is …
Continue reading "Movie posters, photographs, Lego cinema and film competition at gallery"
For International Women's Day the London Socialist Film Co-op is showing films documenting the lives of two significant women: Claudia Jones and María Zambrano Alarcon. Hidden Herstories: Claudia Jones. Octavia Foundation Young People, UK 2010 [U], 15 mins. Claudia Jones (1945-1964), was a founder of the West Indian Workers and Students Association, started the West …
Continue reading "Significant women at film co-op screening"
A short film has been released describing the organisation and activities that led up to the Community Christmas Dinner at the Indian YMCA in December. Made by the On Road Films project at Fitzrovia Youth in Action the short documentary is presented by Eden Steenkamp. Steenkamp visits the Surma Community Centre in Robert Street, Regent's …
Continue reading "Film tells story behind Community Christmas Dinner 2014"
Fans of British cycling could be forgiven for locking their bikes up outside the wrong venue on their way to take part in this year's annual pilgrimage to the Hammersmith Cyclists Film Show. Riverside Studios in Hammersmith is undergoing refurbishment for the next few years and the 2015 screening this Sunday will instead take place in …
Continue reading "Old school time trialling at cyclists film show"
Miners in Tunisia, textile workers in India, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are the subjects of January's London Socialist Film Co-op screening at the Bolivar Hall. In 2011 a revolution in Tunisia overthrew the country's autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and was followed by free elections. One of the protests that inspired …
Continue reading "Miners, textile workers, and TTIP at film screening"
This month's Socialist Film Co-op presents two films: a feature-length documentary about the cost of AIDS medicines, and a short film about Irish migrant workers in north-west London. FIRE IN THE BLOOD Dylan Mohan Gray, India 2013 [PG], 84 mins The first non-fiction feature from India to be theatrically released in either the US or UK, …
Continue reading "Battle for Aids medicines and portrait of Irish migrant workers at film co-op"
Peter Fudakowski has directed his first film at the age of 60 and it is being released this month. It is called Secret Sharer and has its premiere on June 23 at the Curzon Mayfair, and goes on general release four days later. "It is a romantic thriller based on a Joseph Conrad short story," …
On Wednesday evening beneath the well-trodden pavement of Oxford Street the sounds of guitar and saxophone will be filling the void hidden from the day's shoppers. Guitarist Jim Mullen and saxophonist Sean Khan will be serving a up a heady cocktail of jazz funk and DJ Eon Irving will be keeping the dancefloor filled. Called the Phoenix …
