With an artist-led gallery tour, a techno rave, screenings with discussions and Q&As, late openings of creative spaces, and much more, this Hot List has everything you need to be kept busy and culturally stimulated over the next week. Enjoy!
FILM FESTIVAL
LONDON FILM WEEK
THE GARDEN CINEMA
Holborn I 4 December to 8 December
London Film Week is an international film festival taking place in the very heart of London during the first half of December. The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms. From avant-garde independents to more established filmmakers, the festival gathers filmmakers, industry professionals, and cinephiles worldwide for screenings, discussions, and networking events.
See the programme and get tickets here.
ARTIST-LED GUIDED GALLERY TOUR
STEVEN APPLEBY: NOTHING IS REAL
SPACE STATION SIXTY-FIVE
Kennington I 5 December 17:00-18:00
An informal guided tour of Nothing is Real, the latest exhibition at Space Station Sixty-Five, led by the artist themselves, Steven Appleby. This exclusive one-hour tour will take you through a retrospective of 40 years of Appleby’s work, offering a personal insight into his celebrated observational cartoons, surrealist paintings, prints, films, photographs, and much more.
Steven will guide you through over 100 pieces that explore life’s most profound questions, delving into themes like secrets, death, sex, aging, gender, and identity. This tour offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from the artist about his diverse and thought-provoking career.
Find out more and book your free ticket here.
LATE OPENINGS
FIRST THURSDAYS
MAGCULTURE, HATO PRESS, MR BINGO, TOKYO BIKE
Old Street I 5 December 18:00-21:00
First Thursdays, the legendary monthly night that saw creative spaces across East London open their doors and welcome in crowds of people, is set to make a return. For the first edition, the independent publishing house Hato Press will open their Zine Series exhibition, Mr Bingo offers "free beer, philosophical conversation and flirting", tokyobike are doing a Japanese pickling workshop and magCulture are hosting a magCulture late with mince pies and prosecco.
Find the details and more information here.
RAVE
INFERNO
COLOUR FACTORY
Hackney Wick I 6 December 22:00-04:00
The queer techno rave come performance art platform INFERNO is back for another allstar line-up of your favourite DJs. Making their annual return to INFERNO is creative powerhouse Fecal Matter who will be performing and DJing their new single Die With You. Pxssy Palace founder Nadine Noor makes their INFERNO debut playing a techno infused rave set as well as musican KAVARI. Dahc Dermur VIII will be returning with MOTHER of INFERNO Lewis G. Burton. New queen on the scene Dan(na) makes her debut. Winners of the INFERNO residency program performance artist y'Sohnt for a piece that merges classical music, dance and costume to explore gender and sexuality and visual artists a darker sky and Wanrong Zhu for an AI infused visual feast. Nightlife collective OPIA are also joining for a very special room 2 take over.
Find out more and get your tickets here.
FILM, Q&A, & LIVE MUSIC
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.
FILM
A BERTRAND MANDICO DOUBLE BILL + Q&A
ICA
Trafalgar Square I 7 December 18:45
Mandico is known for his experimental works that explore themes of the body and gender fluidity. This London premiere of Conann is followed by a Q&A with Mandico and a screening of The Wild Boys.
Find out more and get your tickets here.
RAVE
KAOS X ZIBER PRESENTS PHASE FATALE
FOLD
Canning Town I 7 December 23:30-07:00
KAOS x ZIBER; a special collaboration between two cult underground nights in the Steam Room at FOLD where Chronzon, Glotzer, Szkarlat and Josh Quinton will join Hayden and share the decks until the early hours.
Find out more and get your tickets here.
LIFE DRAWING
LIFE DRAWING WITH ROSIE GIBBENS
STUDIO WAYNE MCGREGOR
Stratford I 8 December 11:00-13:00
This life drawing class hosted by the artist-led gallery and multidisciplinary collective Flux Projects will be run by artist Rosie Gibbens. The model will take a number of poses linked to Rosie's work, inspired by the idea of body extensions and restrictions. Props and costumes from Rosie's studio will be incorporated. Expect extra limbs and stuffed appendages. You will also be encouraged to build the 'scene' collaboratively. There will be a mixture of short, quick and longer-term poses.
All details and tickets here.
TALK
MISKATONIC: TECH NOIR NIGHTS
THE HORSE HOSPITAL
Russell Square I 10 December 19:00-22:00
This lecture will interrogate how the cultural understanding that nightclubs are play-grounds - where daytime rules don’t fully apply - allows filmmakers an opportunity to play with, or wholly transgress, film’s structures and conventions in a way that can be opposed in more mainstream genres. It will look at how the confusion of duration and persistence inherent in the nightclub experience allows physical appearance or emotional personae to change and develop, facilitating a process of narrative and character development often more natural, often more convincing, than more filmic methods like montage or exposition.
More information and tickets here.
LIVE MUSIC & INSTALLATION
LUCINDA CHUA: LIVE PERFORMANCE
STUDIO VOLTAIRE
Clapham Common I 11 December 19:00-20:00
Music artist and composer Lucinda Chua will stage a live improvised performance, taking place within Lap-See Lam’s installation Floating Sea Palace. Combining cello with an array of effects units, Chua blends intimacy, atmosphere and haunting forms and creates elemental landscapes that hold delicate songs.
Lap-See Lam’s Floating Sea Palace addresses the translation – and mistranslation – of cultural heritage, exploring separation, generational loss and collective memory. Chua’s musical performance will respond to and inhabit this space, in a one-off concert during the exhibition's closing week.
Find more information and book tickets here.
SCREENING & DISCUSSION
ART CLASS + DISCUSSION WITH ANDREA LUKA ZIMMERMAN AND FILMMAKER PENNY WOOLCOCK
BFI SOUTHBANK
Waterloo I 13 December 18:30
Art and class – the two words hang in tension and determine who in the political hierarchy gets to make what, how their creativity is received and even raises the question of what ‘art’ is. Conceived as a lecture delivered to camera, with candid reflections from Zimmerman, this at once extremely playful, yet fiercely-critical essay film-fiction hybrid features contributions from other creative voices, delivering jolts of subversive energy. The film will be followed by a discussion with its director Andrea Luka Zimmerman and filmmaker Penny Woolcock.
All details and tickets here.
