Katharine Hepburn Season, London
Katharine Hepburn was the ultimate Hollywood survivor. She may have alienated many with her haughtiness, her strong-willed refusal to play the starlet game, and even her defiant trouser-wearing, but you don’t get four best actress Oscars without being a fighter – and a terrific, versatile actor too, of course. Even after being dubbed “box-office poison” in the 1930s, Hepburn orchestrated her own comeback by financially backing the 1940 romcom smash The Philadelphia Story (13-26 Feb). And the fact she won three of her Academy Awards when she was over 60 (Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, The Lion In Winter and On Golden Pond, all of which will screen at the BFI in March) makes her a role model for any actor who is in it for the long haul. Her films have endured, too, as this hit-filled two-month tribute attests.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Sun to 19 Mar, bfi.org.uk
Tales Of The Grim Sleeper + Q&A, Nationwide
Why has nobody heard of the Grim Sleeper, despite the fact he could have killed as many as 100 people over 25 years? Not even his LA neighbours were warned about him. Could it have something to do with the fact that he preyed mainly on black prostitutes? Sounds like a case for Nick Broomfield. The documentary veteran coaxes answers out of his interviewees and poses broader, highly pertinent questions about inequality in his latest work. He’s also on hand to update on the case at these screenings.
Various Picturehouses, Mon to 9 Feb, picturehouses.com; Watershed, Bristol, Wed, watershed.co.uk
No Manifesto: A Film About Manic Street Preachers, Nationwide
No band with a stated mission to “inform people, to instruct people, to make a difference” can expect to be taken that seriously, but when they say it, the Manic Street Preachers really mean it – and they’ve spent the past 30-odd years coming close to fulfilling it. The Welsh punk-pop veterans’ unique combination of political commitment, affability and “turn it up to 11” rocking out is captured in Elizabeth Marcus’s in-depth documentary, which has followed the band for the past 10 years. She talks to the Manics’ famously devoted fans, and captures the band on tour, on stage and behind the scenes, where they reflect candidly on their career, their longevity and, of course, the disappearance of Richey Edwards. It’s an appropriately unpretentious rockumentary that makes no attempt to mythologise its down-to-earth heroes. No Manifesto is out on DVD in February, but this tour provides a chance to see it on the big screen.
Various venues, to 4 Jun, nomanifestofilm.com
Glasgow youth film festival, Glasgow
Entirely curated by 15- to 18-year-olds, this weekend festival digs a little deeper than your standard YA blockbuster fare. Teen heartbreak and sci-fi mysteries abound in the opener, US indie The Signal (Fri), while For No Eyes Only (7 Feb) is a German teen update of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and Slovenia’s Class Enemy (8 Feb) finds suspense in the schoolroom. Dutch director-actor Tamar van den Dop gives a masterclass, alongside her coming-of-age drama Supernova (both 7 Feb). There are simpler pleasures, too, including a Jumanji/Labyrinth double bill (8 Feb).
Glasgow Film Theatre, Fri to 8 Feb, glasgowfilm.org
