Northwest Film Event Highlights – May 2016

First up this month is a once-in-a-generation cinephile event. HOME, in Manchester, pay tribute to the late, great Jacques Rivette with a screening of his grandest experiment: epic Out 1. This Paris-set odyssey follows two theatre troupes, two conspiracy nuts and a shady organisation called the Thirteen over 13 head-scratching hours. Don’t worry, HOME aren’t showing it in one go, but over two days split into episodes (28-29 May). Basically: if you can binge on a season of Breaking Bad in a weekend, this’ll be a doddle.

Talking of TV, the guys behind Grimm Up North host Pilot Light TV Festival (5-8 May), which celebrates the golden age of television we’re currently enjoying with a selection of episode-binge sessions and guest panels. Don’t miss their Nathan Barley retrospective with post-screening discussion (6 May, HOME), queer dating web series Her Story (7 May, HOME) or Matt Berry presenting a tenth anniversary showing of black comedy Snuff Box (8 May, HOME).

If you’ve come here looking for cinema recommendations that are feature length, then Liverpool’s Small Cinema have some crackers: you’ll find little-seen Jodie Foster thriller The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (12 May), a selection of super-short short films screening on LightNight (13 May), a retro VHS re-run of Friday the 13th (13 May), ace black comedy Nebraska (15 May) and South Korean love story 3-Iron (22 May).

FACT, in Liverpool, serve up a mini-Studio Ghibli season leading up to the June release of the new one, When Marnie Was There. The studio’s staggering debut Laputa: Castle in the Sky warms us up (11 May), with childhood gem My Neighbour Totoro (18 May) and the war-torn Grave of the Fireflies (25 May) following shortly after. 

FACT also play host to the mighty Video Jam (20 May), who’ve curated a night of experimental film and live music in response to FACT’s current stunning exhibition, unfold, from artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, with several of the audiovisual pieces specially commissioned for the night. The films and performers are still to be announced at the time of writing – keep an eye on theskinny.co.uk/film for more info.

Grimm Up North also launch Supernova International Film Festival (27-30 May) at Manchester's Odeon Printworks, a sci-fi counterpoint to their October horror-fest. Moonwalkers, starring Rupert Grint and Ron Perlman, kicks things off (27 May), with choice cuts including 2001: A Space Odyssey (28 May) and a special extended 'Assembly Cut' screening of the underrated Alien 3 (29 May), complete with critic, cast and crew Q&A. This tireless lot have even got a Grimm Up North screening of Day of the Dead at Gorilla (11 May) scheduled, with a live soundtrack score by Goblin. That’s right, in Manchester, everyone can hear your screams of excitement.