NEW SHORTS: London Lives
CHRONICALLY LOCKED DOWN, dir. Charli Whatley
Lockdown and gentrification are the words on every Londoner's lips, including these filmmakers turning an affectionate lens onto what each means to such a sprawling city and mix of people.
Encompassing the bittersweetness of the migrant experience, millennial divorce for Harlington’s Eliza Doolittle and social media spirals in Hackney, tour our fair city with these choice picks of drama, docs and experimenta.
Keep eyes out for talents-to-watch Daisy Moore (Poldark), Lotje Sodderland (My Beautiful Broken Brain) and collaborators Olivia Emden and Joseph Akubeze.
Programmed by Philip Ilson. 79'
This programme contains themes of suicide. Please note, the film Limbo can only be accessed by UK audiences at the request of the filmmaker.
ACRIMONIOUS
A non-acrimonious but sudden divorce wrenches the gay, working-class born Emeka out of a decade-long hiatus living the 'middle-class' dream, landing him back in the childhood council house he hoped he’d left behind.
LIMBO
A true-fiction story of Witold, a young Polish Londoner who takes a new job as a care worker to the bafflement of his laddish housemates. Underpaid and overworked, he speeds from home to home on his bicycle, feeling the enormity of his responsibility to the characterful group of eldery men in his care.
DWELLING
A lone dweller in a small flat. Time slips, memory disperses, erodes and fades. A film piecing together fragments of a creative existence while in lockdown.
CHRONICALLY LOCKED DOWN
A woman with the chronic neurological illness ME/CFS contrasts the world's experience of lockdown with her own, tapping into a moment of shared empathy for one another.
7 BANANAS
Dara and Sophie's once friendship is now only sustained by likes, memes and ever-delayed meet-ups. When Sophie commits suicide, Dara is faced with some news that force her to look behind the surface of Sophie's last messages and posts.
A HOME TRUTH
A young Sámi woman faces conflicting emotions of having found a home far away from her family in Sápmi. Filmed entirely in isolation in London and northern Finland.
NO MORE WINGS
Two lifelong friends meet up at their favourite South London fried chicken shop at a divergent point in their lives. An enchanting tale of a friendship's past and present, flitting between their 15 and 25 year old selves.
PRINCESS
All around the city there are lives crossing and intersecting. One day you might find a balloon on the floor, look at it long and hard, and ask: Who did it once belong to?
