From festivals and programmes featuring sonic artwork, audio-visual exhibitions, and archive video, to film screenings paired with live music - here are four different events at the intersection of film, music, and visual art that we think you should catch.
PERFORMANCE & DANCE
DEREK JARMAN: BLUE NOW
SOUTHBANK CENTRE
Waterloo I 1 December 19:30
British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s landmark final film, Blue, a reflection on life, love and loss, is given a live performance to mark World Aids Day. Blue (1993) was Jarman’s final feature film, completed shortly before his death in 1994. 31 years after it was made, British director Neil Bartlett and actor Russell Tovey have worked together to create a special live performance of the film with Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard, Joelle Taylor, Russell Tovey, Simon Fisher Turner and Lucy Railton. Blue Now is a unique opportunity to reflect on the impact of the British AIDS epidemic and the importance of creating space for compassion, rage and poetry in the face of prejudice and oppression.
More information and tickets here.
AUDIO-VISUAL FESTIVAL
LIGHTSOUNDS FESTIVAL
RICH MIX
Shoreditch High Street I 23 to 24 November
LightSounds is a festival dedicated entirely to audiovisual art, bringing attention to it as a standalone artform, and not a derivative, peripheral form stemming from either music or visual art. Therefore, it aims to invite artists who, either in collaboration with other festival artists or solo, will present concerts, performances, and installations that fuse the musical and visual arts into one integral, aesthetic experience. The festival will also feature workshops and talks by artists.
Find the full programme and tickets here.
EXHIBITION, SCREENINGS & PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
STEP FORWARD: SONIC VISION
ORMSIDE PROJECTS
South Bermondsey I 24 to 28 November
Drawing on the London Community Video Archive’s extensive collection this free-of-charge program showcases films, live performances, and sonic artworks, alongside an audio-visual exhibition, to explore the intimate relationship between music, community and visual culture in a grassroots venue, Ormside Projects dedicated to all three.
Rarely seen productions, including a recently reedited edition of Carol Jacob’s Step Forward (1988), a People-to-People Channel 4 documentary about South London’s Black music scene, will be screened alongside contemporary films and live performances by DJs and selectors, including Lord Tusk and Living Gatlato, as well as a specially commissioned audio-lecture by Edward George and Ben Swaby Selig’s remarkable audio-visual piece Sound Clash (first exhibited at Frieze in 2024).
The free tickets are getting booked up quickly, but there are still some left, for example to the screening of Punk tapes from the LVCA aside Rock My Religion (Dan Graham, 1984), a no wave film analysing the emergence of rock music as creed.
Hurry up and reserve your tickets here.
FILM, Q&A, & LIVE MUSIC
ALL OF THIS UNREAL TIME
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Waterloo I 6 December 19:00
A man – any man, every man – walks alone through night and the city. From subway to pavement to wide open marshland, he confesses his failings: emotional, physical, political. To whom, and for what? Ashamed and alarmed, he considers both the smallness of human life and the scale of the world. Catch the London premiere of the film All of This Unreal Time by Aoife McArdle, Cillian Murphy and Max Porter. The screening is followed by a Q&A with members of the creative team and live performances of new work inspired by the film from composers Aaron and Bryce Dessner, and Jon Hopkins.
Book your tickets here.
