Hull Independent Cinema: Shayda

Shayda, an Iranian woman, finds refuge from her violent and controlling husband in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter, Mona. Over Nowruz, the Persian New Year, they take solace in ritual and celebration, and Shayda rediscovers her joyful former self. There’s even the chance of a new relationship and a fresh start for them both. But neither her husband nor the more conservative elements of her community are about to forgive her for fleeing her marriage.

Starring Leah Purcell, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Lucinda Armstrong Hall

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
Sundance Film Festival: Winner, Audience Award; Nominee, Grand Jury Prize
Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards: Winner, 2 awards inc Best Actress
Directors Guild of America: Nominee, Best Director of First Film
Australian Directors Guild Awards: Winner, Best Director of Feature Film

REVIEWS
“Tension is skillfully sustained throughout and the drama has a pressurising effect…” ★★★★ Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian

“This debut fiction feature from the Australian-Iranian documentary director Noora Niasari proves a worthy vehicle for the incendiary talents of Zar Amir Ebrahimi.” ★★★★ Kevin Maher, The Times

“In her first narrative feature, Niasari, who based the story in part on her own experiences, demonstrates an astounding control of pacing and mood.” Natalia Winkelman, The New York Times

“It is the director’s personal experience that ultimately allows for a thoughtful impact on audiences long past the final scene.” Madeleine Wilson, Little White Lies

Hull Independent Cinema: Didi

In California in 2008, Chris is an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy about to start high school but struggling to meet the cultural expectations of an immigrant family while at the same time trying to fit in with his new friends. In the last month of summer, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery to learn what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.

Starring Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
Sundance Film Festival: Winner, Audience Award; Nominee, Grand Jury Prize & Ensemble Prize
SXSW Film Festival: Nominee, Audience Award
Seattle International Film Festival: Nominee, 3 awards inc Best Film

REVIEWS
“Izaac Wang’s reserved, undemonstrative performance is what sets the film’s non-sucrose tone.”
★★★★ Adrian Horton, The Guardian

“Didi, a semi-autobiographical tale… is insightful on racial self-loathing as well as bigotry.” ★★★★ Ed Potton, The Times

“It’s all the better for feeling so immediate. Dìdi is a memory with barely a scratch on it.” ★★★★ Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent

“… it’s also a period piece that understands the flattening effect the internet has on teenagers in particular.”
Shirley Li, The Atlantic

Hull Independent Cinema: Sky Peals

Adam leads and small and lonely life, working nightshifts at a motorway service station burger bar and squatting in his mother’s old house. Upon hearing that his estranged father has died, and haunted by the last voicemail he received from him, Adam finds himself in search of answers. Piecing together a complicated image of a man he never knew and who never seemed to fit in, Adam starts to become convinced he descends from an alien race.

Starring Faraz Ayub, Natalie Gavin, Claire Rushbrook

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
London Film Festival: Nominee, First Feature Competition
Venice Film Festival: Nominee, Best Film

REVIEWS
“It’s using the science fiction idea, in the way that science fiction should be used, which is to talk about things that are completely down to earth.” Mark Kermode, Kermode and Mayo’s Take (YouTube)

“Sky Peals is unsettling and effective in its story through its compelling action and stylised shots. With a runtime of 90 minutes, this quirky sci-fi film is worth investing your time in.” ★★★★ Romey Norton, Film Focus Online

“… an arresting first feature – unsettling and effective.” ★★★★ Xan Brooks, The Guardian

Unthinkable Film Screening

UNTHINKABLE is a Hull based short film festival which spans a week in October.

The film screening is the main focus, with the surrounding days packed out with music, performances, art exhibitions and talks from previous patrons, judges and local artists. These include Richie Culver, an artist and performer, and Mark Herman, director of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

The screening takes place on Fri 4 Oct, 5pm at Hull Truck Theatre in the Godber Studio. You can expect a selection of some of the most original shorts from around the UK and further afield and at the end of the evening the judging panel will select a winner.

PLEASE NOTE: Booking for this event will give you entrance into the Film Festival Screening, at Hull Truck Theatre, ONLY. If you would like to book a full Festival Pass we’ll add more information, and a link to buy those tickets, soon.

A Story of Bones + Intro

94 mins | 12A | English

St Helena is a small island in the middle of the Atlantic, reachable only by boat. When the British Government decides to build an airport, initial work reveals 325 skeletons, the remains of some of the 9,000 Africans ‘liberated’ from slavery only to be stranded on the island and eventually buried in mass unmarked graves. This film follows the efforts of local people and historians to ensure that the authorities provide for a new burial site that allows the dead to be properly memorialised.

A Story of Bones will be preceded by an intro from Dr Cassandra Gooptar, Lecturer in Legacies of Slavery at Wilberforce Institute, Principal Investigator on the Guardian Legacies of Enslavement Project and co-founder of the ECR Network for the Study of Slavery & its Legacies.

Awards: Tribeca Film Festival: Nominee, Best Documentary Feature.

UNTHINKABLE Film Festival: Local Screening

UNTHINKABLE Film Festival presents:

Local Screening
Celebrating new film from the North East and local area!

➳ DOORS – 4:30PM // 16+
➳ FILM SCREENINGS // 5:30PM – 8:30PM

UNTHINKABLE is a Hull based film festival in it’s second year. Set up as a charity with the aim of creating unique viewing opportunities for a local audience. In partnership with Hull Truck Theatre and HIC (Hull Independent Cinema). They aim to encourage local filmmaking talent in the Hull region, whilst providing a platform for ‘Unthinkable’ films from around the world!

LOCAL SCREENING
Get yourself down to Polar Bear for our first edition of local screening!

A great opportunity to admire the abundance of local talent, and meet the filmmakers first hand.

Dip in and out from screening to screaming conversation at the bar!

Paul McCartney and Wings: One Hand Clapping (Film)

Directed by David Litchfield, this film captured a moment when Paul McCartney and Wings had found and defined their signature sound. Filmed over four days at Abbey Road Studios in August 1974, the film provides an insight into the inner workings of the band as they work and play together in the studio. Including performances of tracks from Wings masterpiece Band on the Run (released in 1973), intimate footage of the band hanging out in the studio, combined with audio interview snippets, the film also includes previously unreleased full footage of a solo acoustic performance by Paul called The Backyard Sessions.

In addition to the film, this screening event includes an introduction by Paul McCartney recorded exclusively for movie theatre audiences as well as unseen Polaroids of the band.

Hull Independent Cinema: Blur – To The End

Featuring live performance alongside footage of the band in the studio and on the road, this is an intimate moment in time with Blur as they make a surprise return with their first record in eight years, ‘The Ballad of Darren’.

Contains flashing images.

UK | 2024 | 105 Min | Documentary, Music

Hull Independent Cinema: Memoria

This season our Audience Choice Screening will be a celebration of one of the greatest British actors of recent years, the incomplarable Tilda Swinton. You send us your suggestions, we narrow it down to a shortlist of four, and you get the final say!

Presented with Descriptive Subtitles

USA | 2021 | 136 Min | Drama/Mystery/Sci Fi

ERT Cinema Club – Nightmare Before Christmas

Rating PG | Published 1993 | 76 minutes

The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selickin his feature directorial debut and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of “Halloween Town”, who stumbles upon “ChristmasTown” and schemes to take over the holiday.

The principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.

ERT CINEMA CLUB: Nosferatu the Vampyre

Rating 15 | Published 1979 | 107 minutes

Nosferatu the Vampyre is a 1979 gothic horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conceived as a stylistic remake of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 German Dracula adaptation Nosferatu. The picture stars Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and French artist-writer Roland Topor as Renfield.

Jonathan Harker is sent away to Count Dracula’s castle to sell him a house in Virna, where he lives. But Count Dracula is a vampire, an undead ghoul living off men’s blood. Inspired by a photograph of Lucy Harker, Jonathan’s wife, Dracula moves to Virna, bringing with him death and plague… An unusually contemplative version of Dracula, in which the vampire bears the cross of not being able to get old and die.

Herzog’s production of Nosferatu was very well received by critics and enjoyed a comfortable degree of commercial success. The film had 1,000,000 admissions in West Germany.

ERT CINEMA CLUB: The Princess Bride

Rating PG | Published 1987 | 98 minutes

The Princess Bride is a 1987 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner and starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, and Christopher Guest. Adapted by William Goldman from his 1973 novel, it tells the story of a swashbuckling farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions befriended along the way, who must rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck.

In 2016, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

National Theatre Live presents NT Live: Prima Facie (Encore Screening)

Jodie Comer’s (Killing Eve) Olivier and Tony Award-winning performance in Suzie Miller’s gripping one-woman play returns to cinemas.

Tessa is a young, brilliant barrister. She has worked her way up from working class origins to be at the top of her game; defending, cross examining and winning. An unexpected event forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge.

Prima Facie takes us to the heart of where emotion and experience collide with the rules of the game.

Justin Martin directs this solo tour de force, captured live in 2022 during a sold out run at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End.

The Royal Opera: The Marriage of Figaro (Live Screening)

Count Almaviva lives with his Countess on their estate near Seville. The Count has his eye on his wife’s maid Susanna, who is about to marry the Count’s servant, Figaro. Much to Figaro’s dismay, the Count plans to seduce Susanna on the night of the wedding. Meanwhile, Cherubino, the Count’s young page, has a crush on the Countess, but has just been dismissed after being discovered with Barbarina, the gardener Antonio’s daughter.

Figaro decides he must foil the Count’s attempt to seduce his wife-to-be and enlists the help of the Countess, Susanna and Cherubino – the latter disguising himself as a woman. A series of mistaken identities, misunderstandings and thwarted plans ensue, with all members of the household participating as each tries to get what – and who – they want.

Not A Rock-Doc – Sharks Film Screening / Q and A with Steve ‘Snips’ Parsons

Back in 1972, Sharks quickly soared to new heights in the rock world, a record deal from the coolest label, superstar management, and a shark-shaped car. But a devastating crash and drug problems saw them sink beneath the waves. Now, they reunite, embarking on a 21st-century odyssey filled with pain, dark humour, and unexpected acts of heroism.

The film explores the complex dynamics of an iconic band’s journey, from the highs of their resurgence to the lows of their struggles. The film NOT A ROCK-DOC delves into the compelling story of a revered cult band from the 1970s, as they embark on a mission to revive their music and legacy in the digital age. We follow the band on their promotional tour for the album KILLERS OF THE DEEP as they navigate the pressures faced by ‘men of a certain age’ striving to deliver electrifying performances across the UK, Japan, and Europe. Accompanied by the camera crew, they are joined by Toshio Nomura, a passionate fan from Osaka, Japan, also documenting their journey with his miniDV camera setup. Toshio becomes an endearing third protagonist in the film, showcasing his unwavering dedication to the band.

We witness the gripping and hilarious portrayal of the Sharks revival as the film takes us through the ups and downs of the band’s chaotic journey as they confront the harsh realities of the modern music industry. We experience their struggles, triumphs, and the universal challenges faced by creatives worldwide. The film unfolds like a slow-motion car crash, packed with hilarious and cringeworthy moments. Picture this: A former Sex Pistol jumps ship, leaving the band scrambling. Chris Spedding then joins forces with Bryan Ferry for a four-month world tour to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Snips is determined to salvage the situation with another tour, but they find themselves playing to almost empty halls and even performing at an ageing fan’s birthday party.

Brace yourself for real-life ‘Spinal Tap’ situations that will have you in stitches as the band battles humiliation, condescension, and frustration at every turn. It’s a rollercoaster of laughs, awkwardness, and the kind of craziness only rock & roll can deliver. Get ready to be entertained, moved, and inspired as NOT A ROCK-DOC captures the gritty essence of the 21st Century Sharks revival.

Through powerful storytelling, intimate access, and a healthy dose of laughter, this documentary reveals the enduring power of artistic expression and the unyielding passion that fuels the artistic spirit and why we love music. The finished film is a uniquely British story of failure and grace under pressure – with some dynamic stage performances and high quality music…

…but it’s not a Rock-Doc.

The Thief of Bagdad

The greatest swashbuckler of them all, Douglas Fairbanks, stars in this epic fantasy-adventure, inspired by The Arabian Nights. Spectacular set design and special effects combine with dramatic action scenes and romance in this masterpiece of 1920s silent film – which will be brought to life with live piano.

Buy tickets to Thief of Bagdad for 15% off Northern Silents Double Bill at Hull Truck Theatre.