For the second weekend of our month-long series of secret films celebrating Close-Up Cinema’s one-year anniversary, we’re thrilled to host artist, filmmaker, and cultural activist Andrea Luka Zimmerman; curator of artists’ moving image at the BFI, William Fowler; and filmmaker John Rogers. Our three special guests have each been asked to introduce a film that neither they, nor you, will know the identity of until it’s screened. Expect the unexpected!

Curated by Schtinter, the Liberated Film Club programme consists of more than 23 lost, banned and forgotten films you cannot see anywhere else and you will not see again, screened each Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the month. No titles will be announced in advance, but look out for some exciting guest announcements in the following weeks.

Book your season ticket now to avoid disappointment! And fall in love with getting lost this July at Close-Up Cinema, as unexpected pleasures are the best kind...

Friday 8 July: Pirate Buñuel Descends on the Island Dwellers of Google Minus

Introduction by artist, filmmaker, and cultural activist Andrea Luka Zimmerman

Google doesn’t make mistakes unless confronted by Liberated Film. With cinematography by Jose Gaspar, or Gasparilla, the last Spanish pirate, whose on-ship doctor slides into frame at the butt end of the 1960s, heavily intoxicated. Think Murnau’s Faust on holiday in Buñuel’s Spain with an Argentinean concubine, a giant bouncy ball, and a passion for breaking reality. Lost? Exactly! Take a chance, like Faust, like the doctor...

Saturday 9 July: Communist Poland vs. Capitalist Britain

Introduction by William Fowler, curator of artists’ moving image at the BFI

In Communist Poland, as in Capitalist Britain: climb the ladder, lose your soul. But the journey was worth it, right? Cinematography by the pre-eminent Polish Oscar-winning filmmaker who accepted his trophy in Reebok sneakers, and was beaten to a pulp by Academy security.

Sunday 10 July: Desert Kazakhstan: A Louche Hallucination

Introduction by filmmaker John Rogers

A title strangely missing from view, by a filmmaker known well enough to disqualify himself from Liberated Film Club inclusion. You can only understand so much of the universe: push too hard in the moment and you’ll be stuck there. An undisputed masterpiece, and one of so few films exploring the full scope of Kazakhstan’s unmapped territories – in geographical and psychological terms. Could be Mars, dammit. Could be me and could be you.

More info:
purge.xxx
fugitiveimages.org.uk
www.estatefilm.co.uk
www.benrivers.co.uk

Part of Close-Up Cinema first anniversary programmes