If you’re looking for more constructive ways to spend the long weekend than quietly seething about the royal publicity stunt, The Quietus highly recommends checking out the always excellent East End Film Festival, now in its 10th year.
Tonight’s premier features the highly anticipated rockumentary about The Libertines, Libertines: There Are No Innocent Bystandards by music photographer Roger Sargent. While the idea of spending a couple hours in a dark room with Doherty, Barat and co is not The Quietus’ idea of a good time, the film certainly promises to spark heated discussion about the band’s legacy in the context of the East End.
There’ll also be a screening of the new addition to Lars von Trier’s The Advance Party project, Donkey in which he challenges different directors, Five Obstructions-style, to develop stories with the same actors and characters. You can also see the excellent first film in the series Red Road by Fish Tank director Andrea Arnold.
Also planned is a rare showing of Ken Russell’s famously banned The Devils, based on Aldous Huxley’s book and starring Oliver Reed. It’s one of the best examples of Russell’s crazy religious imagery and about the closest a film can get to looking like a Heronemous Bosh painting. The festival will also be showing another award winning film, based on the same events: Mother Joan of the Angels.
Be sure to check out new intelligent horror films Julia’s Eyes and Agnosia. If you’ve already have your wristband for Camden Crawl, it should be well worth queueing for Bob Stanley from Saint Etienne’s film and music set, Sonic Film at The Forge. As part of the Secret Societies strand there will be screenings in a recently discovered and restored Freemason’s ‘lodge’ near Liverpool Street
Monday is Movie May Day and, as mentioned before here, The Quietus is hosting a screening of Nick Cave documentaries by artists Iain and Jane followed by a Q & A at the Aubin cinema, and Electric Sheep will be putting on a screening at The Old Blue Last featuring Quietus favourite Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain, Suspiria and a secret slice of unknown terror conjured up by our good friends at Cigarette Burns. The day kicks off at 12 and the mystery film screens at 6.
Stay tuned for more previews and coverage during and after the fest.
Full programme here.
