Grimmfest, Manchester
Can’t wait till Halloween? You can get your fix of disturbing content early here: 34 horror films in four days, ranging from prestige new titles to premium-grade schlock. The former category includes the world premiere of DXM, a sci-fi brainmelter involving subatomic physics, mind control and Sam Neill, and The Hallow, an Irish “you’re not from round here” tale, introduced by director Corin Hardy. At the lower-brow end of the spectrum are 80s-styled Turbo Kid (Mad Max meets BMX Bandits) and comedy He Never Died, starring Henry Rollins.
Odeon Printworks, Thu to 4 Oct
Doc’n’Roll Festival, London
Something for pretty much everyone at this music documentary festival, which brings 14 new films, ranging in genre from folk to hip-hop and Scottish indie to 1960s New York Latin boogaloo. Highlights include tonight’s Mavis! – as in Staples, a portrait of the soul-gospel icon and civil rights activist, who’s still performing after 60 years on stage. And there’s Sleaford Mods’ highly anticipated Invisible Britain, promising to mix tour footage and fan interviews with a Patrick Keiller/Iain Sinclair-style state-of-the-nation survey. Other subjects include the global spread of breakdancing (Shake The Dust); eyeball-headed enigmas The Residents (Theory Of Obscurity, also playing today); flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucía (with live music); Irish guitar genius Rory Gallagher (who even Jimi Hendrix looked up to); and Bob Dylan, whose newly discovered Basement Tapes lyrics are set to music by the likes of Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford and Johnny Depp.
Picturehouse Central, W1, to 4 Oct
The Jarman Award 2015, Liverpool & Belfast
The case has surely been made by now for artists’ film being not just a wellspring of innovation for the medium but also a breeding ground for “mainstream” cinema talent. The Jarman award is the place to find both: past nominees include Clio Barnard, Ben Rivers and John Akomfrah. The work of this year’s six shortlisted artists – Adam Chodzko, Seamus Harahan, Gail Pickering, Alia Syed, Bedwyr Williams and Andrea Luka Zimmerman – tours the UK over the coming months, with the artists themselves, and 2014 winner Ursula Mayer, in regular attendance. The tour begins in Liverpool and Belfast, and culminates with a weekend of talks and screenings at London’s Whitechapel Gallery in late November.
FACT, Liverpool, Tue; The MAC, Belfast, Thu; touring to 22 Nov
Head Trips: Films For The Inner Eye, London
No psychoactive substances required – or allowed, let’s be clear about that – during this brief season of genuinely brain-messing cinema, conceived to complement the Barbican’s Transcender season of psychedelic and devotional music (which continues until Sunday). Gaspar Noé’s hallucinogenic Enter The Void plays in its maximum-strength uncut version, and Scorsese-endorsed 1981 doc Trances focuses on Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane. Or, for full-on, synapse-scrambling immersion try the optical assault of Paul Sharits’s Mandala films, and a compilation of transcendent avant garde works by the likes of James Whitney and Jordan Belson.
Barbican Cinema, EC2, Thu to 6 Oct
