Ménilmontant (1926)

dir. Dimitri Kirsanoff

Finch Community Cinema

26th September 2026
Doors 6:30pm, films from 7pm

ACCOMPANIED BY: John Sweeney

"One of the least-known masterpieces of the screen" – Pauline Kael on Ménilmontant

Shot on the streets of the titular working-class neighbourhood for next to nothing, the film follows the fates of two orphaned sisters who, living in the wake of violent tragedy, are plagued by poverty and subject to male manipulation. Kirsanoff innovatively shuns the use of intertitles – experimenting towards a poetic, purely visual cinematic language – while lead actress Nadia Sibirskaïa (Kirsanoff's wife and creative collaborator) is spellbinding in her naturalism.

SCREENING WITH:

Brumes d'automne (1929)

dir. Dimitri Kirsanoff

Erotikon (1929)

dir. Gustav Machatý

The Cinema Museum

29th April 2026
Doors 6:30pm, films from 7:30pm

ACCOMPANIED BY: Cyrus Gabrysch

Based on a scenario by the avant-garde poet Vitezslav Nezval and rich with provocative symbolism, the film traces the fallout from a charged encounter between Andrea (Ita Rina), a rural railway worker's daughter, and out-of-town traveller George (Olaf Fjord), a sophisticated womaniser.

The film first premiered at a semi-private screening in Prague in 1929 before then being censored upon its wider release. This new digital restoration by the Národní Filmový Archiv sees the film returned, as closely as possible, to its original uncensored state.

SCREENING WITH:

Lady with the Small Foot (1920)

(Dáma s malou nožkou)
dir. Gustav Machatý

and a selection of silent fragments

The Crowd (1928)

dir. King Vidor

Finch Community Cinema

17th April 2026
Doors 7:30pm, films from 8pm

ACCOMPANIED BY: Ashley Valentine

"I made pictures as a good employee and pictures that came out of my own insides. This is one that came out of my guts. There was a lot of hypocrisy in early films and I wanted to get away from it" – King Vidor on The Crowd

Ruffling feathers within the studio system at the time and offering a quietly subversive take on the American dream, the film follows lowly clerk John Sims (James Murray), 'one of the seven million that believe New York depends on them', and his love, Mary (Eleanor Boardman), as they try to find happiness in the merciless metropolis.

SCREENING WITH:

Manhatta (1921)

dirs. Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand

The Wind (1928)

dir. Victor Sjöström

Finch Community Cinema

23rd January 2026
Doors 7:30pm, films from 8pm

ACCOMPANIED BY: John Sweeney

Featuring a spellbinding performance from era-defining icon Lillian Gish, and truly haunting imagery, Victor Sjöström's proto-psychological-horror masterpiece will get under your skin.

Shot on location in the Mojave Desert and showing Sjöström's mastery of atmosphere, the film tells the story of an impoverished young woman who moves out West in hope of a new life – only to be confronted by a desolate dustbowl populated by lustful men and a maddening, ceaseless wind.

SCREENING WITH:

The New York Hat (1912)

dir. D.W. Griffith

A Page of Madness (1926)

dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa

Finch Community Cinema

29th November 2025
Doors 7:30pm, film from 8pm

ACCOMPANIED BY: John Sweeney

"When's the last time you were surprised by a silent film? Impressed, dazzled, yes, but genuinely surprised? [...] There's no amount of buckling up that can prepare a well-versed silent cinephile for the utter unheralded weirdness of Teinosuke Kinugasa's A Page of Madness" – Michael Atkinson, San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Disorientating, mesmerising and utterly unique, this pioneering work of experimental horror from director Kinugasa tells the story of a man who begins working at a psychiatric hospital to be closer to his institutionalised wife. Produced by the avant-garde arts group Shinkankakuha and presumed lost for decades, the film utilises a fragmented structure and kaleidoscopic layered exposure to visualise a world of insanity.