LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2017 PROGRAMME

‘THIS IS HAPPENING WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION’ (“Her Jazz”, Huggy Bear, 1992)

London Short Film Festival (LSFF) - 6-15 January - has announced its 2017 programme. According to the organisers: "This year’s festival mantra comes from Huggy Bear’s 1992 single Her Jazz, one of the rare UK representatives of riot grrrl in the early nineties. Based on the song’s ethos ‘this is happening without your permission’, LSFF 2017 has embraced this ideology, showing a huge wealth of diverse and challenging content, especially in the light of the events and news of 2016."

This 4th edition will feature the likes of Alan Yentob, Michael Armstrong, Julien Temple, Tamra Davis, The Begotten, Big Joanie, Limmy, Armando Ianucci, Fay Milton & Ayse Hassan (Savages), David Leister & Bea Haut (Analogue Recurring), Annette Kennerley. Highlights include the story of the birth of riot grrrl, David Bowie Sound & Vision - a series of screenings at 19 Picturehouse cinemas across the UK, tracing the star’s career from the 1960s to the 1980s, with a series of critically acclaimed films that have rarely been seen screened - and, shedding light on today’s social media culture, 600 of Glaswegian comedian Limmy’s vines screened for the first time, followed by a Q&A hosted by Armando Iannucci.

For those aspiring to crack the industry, LSFF has developed a Young Programmer scheme, supported with Lottery funding through the BFI Film Festival Fund, which will feature an exploration of silent cinema and its association with the Deaf community. And this 4th edition will see the launch of With Teeth; a long-term short film commissioning fund, to support emerging film talent.

This year, the festival will present New Queer Visions: Roots Manoeuvre and New Queer Visions: A Special Relationship, a series of shorts and documentaries from all across the US. A percentage of ticket sales will be donated to the UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group and the Queer Kampala International Film Festival.

The fashion and culture programme brings us Youth Decades - a celebration of various past youth cultures. Where possible, these classic films are being screened from original formats, including 35mm - and I am Dora: Free, White and 21 - a "mix-tape programme of moving image works that live on the internet, [including] grime and poetry, readings, artist moving image work, video art, memes and selfie artists." Fashion In The Sonic Landscape is a programme of live projections curated by the London College of Fashion and Domino Recording Co celebrating fashion film, interactive live editing and intoxicating beats.

Anarchy In The UK tells the story of the ’Misrule Cinema Movement’ movement from 2010 to 2016, which took off after the government abolished the UK Film Council. The film will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Kate Taylor (LSFF co-founder), alongside Duncan Reekie (Exploding Cinema) programmer Helen de Witt (BFI), Laura Shacham (Kino London) and the film’s director Jett Hollywood.

Keep checking this page, we’ll be covering the fest. For more info, go to http://shortfilms.org.uk/.