AN INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY CINEMA SHOWING A DIVERSE SELECTION OF HIGH QUALITY FILMS.
Waltham Forest Cinema Project presents a Q&A screening of the new documentary Out Laws, with director James Lewis.
The history of the British Empire casts a long shadow. While the UK decriminalised homosexuality in 1968, many former colonies are still living with the exported legacy of anti-LGBT legislation. In this inspiring documentary, we meet three activists fighting and winning to repeal these laws at home. Against overwhelming hostility in their home countries, we see them fight through the system to change the world for gay people. Friedel Dausab fights pushes for landmark legislation in Namibia; writer and trans activist Raven Gill, shows how she changed attitudes and the legal system in Barbados; and advocate Rosanna Flamer-Caldera reflects on her successful fight to change the law in Sri Lanka.
We'll be joined by James Lewis to discuss working on this compelling doc, as well as how we can contribute to dismantling colonial laws.
Waltham Forest Cinema Project presents a special event celebrating the new restoration of a underseen French gem, Simone Barbès or Virtue, featuring a specially recorded introduction by Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) and an illustrated lecture by cinema expert Nigel Smith on the history of London's pornographic cinemas.
Simone Barbès or Virtue is set across one Parisian night, as we follow sex cinema usher Simone (Ingrid Bourgoin) and her colleague Martine (Martine Simonet) as they deal with the attendees of the screening, by turns amused, bored and intimate. As they clock off from this site of male desire, we follow them into the night and to the lesbian cabararet bar, where a whole other circulation of erotic pursuit is in play. Like a version of Variety directed by Chantal Akerman, this is a brilliantly observed look into hidden nightlife. Newly restored, this classic of lesbian cinema is now ripe for rediscovery.
Before the screening, there will be a specially recorded introduction by Charlotte Wells, director of Aftersun, on why Simone Barbès ranks among her favourite films. Following the screening, there will be an illustrated lecture by cinema tour guide Nigel Smith on the history of London's sex cinemas.
Actors dress up as animals in this inventive Taiwanese curiosity from 1961, in which the happy lives of the forest creatures are shaken when a pack of wolves suddenly attacks. Amidst this threat, the Sika Deer is busy fighting with the Elk for the love of the demure Miss Deer, which arouses the jealousy of the manipulative Foxy. Apparently intended as a children’s film, The Fantasy of Deer Warrior now has queer camp appeal for its animal cosplay, while some viewers have sensed political undertones. Is it anti-communist? Anti-nationalist? Or just an ingeniously designed and costumed adventure? Whimsically incorporating elements from Aesop’s Fables, Zhang Ying’s film is a uniquely imaginative gem.
