>> ‘Behind the Scenes at the Sodom Odeon’: An Afternoon with Jane Giles
@ St Matthias Hall: Dissenters Gallery
2pm-3pm // Free
‘The Scala had magic. It was like joining a very secret club, like a biker gang or something… They could show films uncut because they had memberships, well that’s insane! It’s like they were a country club for criminals and lunatics and people that were high… Which is a good way to see movies’ – John Waters
Or, the story of how a film-loving girl from a small town in Sussex became programmer of the UK’s queerest cinema, the notorious and influential Scala in King’s Cross. Drawing on photographs from her forthcoming book about the history of the Scala cinema from 1978-1993, Jane Giles will talk about the wild life and times of this legendary venue and the diverse audience tribes who made it their own.
Jane Giles was the provocative programmer of the Scala, the legendary cinema that banned Shane McGowan for his exploits during an All-Nighter, fought the ‘Video Nasties’ bill and was prosecuted for showing A Clockwork Orange. Alongside witnesses and associates, Jane reveals the highs, lows, thrills and spills of this notorious and influential rep cinema in a discussion that looks at how art can take on the law, all for the most perverse causes.
>> FK Alexander Princess Diana is Dead and Who Should we See About That?
@ Secret Site (meet at VFD)
4pm // Free
BEING A PRINCESS
ISN’T
ALL IT’S
CRACKED UP
TO BE
Princess Diana is resurrected as a grrl gang for 2018 - as livid as they are alive!
A ratbag of punk queens gather together in East London wearing Diana masks and wielding hammers, giving Princess Diana a moment of retaliation against the press, the crown and the patriarchy. A moment that she could only have dreamed of.
GOD SAVE THE QUEERS.
>> The SPIT! Manifesto
@ Stoke Newington Road (meet at VFD)
5pm // Free
SPIT! (Sodomites, Perverts, Inverts Together!) (Carlos Motta, John Arthur Peetz, Carlos Maria Romero) with Joshua Hubbard, Carlos Mauricio Rojas, Claudia Palazzo, Malik Nashad Sharpe, Daniel Braithwaite-Shirley,and Despina Zacharopoulou. A series of performative inventions in public space that use speech acts and performative gestures inspired by queer manifestos from the 1960s to the present.
>> Karen Finley Unicorn Gratitude Mystery
@ VFD
7pm // £20
European Premiere
Karen Finley brings her rave reviewed solo performance that explores the recent heightened US political presidential landscape that takes on citizenship, gender disparity and abuse of power. The individual price of public relationships at the price of privacy becomes divisive with searing psychosexual dynamics of wit and seething revelation. Finley delivers an experimental nonlinear poetic text that explores magical beings, aggressive thankfulness, and collective intimacy through a Shakespearean-family nation drama traumatics. All jolting the audience into considering the unnatural disaster of humankind.
In Unicorn – an exploration of the imaginary unattainable white horned beast, a racist and elitist symbol of whiteness. Transparent overt and covert meanderings of truisms, branding and liberal sophistication develop through lyrical and poetic amusings to create a place to reconsider how we embrace the liberal mythical captive kingdom of beasts.
In Gratitude – a performance of the gendered expectations of female humility and the powerlessness it gives rise to. Cynicism, desire and eager acceptance appear in double and triple entendres, revealing a deeper meaning of aggressive thankful courtesy in the inflexible neoliberal sacred spaces of conflict; the yoga mat compound, the Whole Food paycheck utility lifestyle that consumes contemporary gentrification. In full force Finley is unstoppable in expressing the longing for companionship among gender disparity and magical narcissism.
In Mystery -- an evolving performance takes on current trauma at large through Trump as monster. Finley dives deep into the language, emotion and overwhelming terror of the uncontrollable Convfefe. The intimacy of international and natural disaster becomes a poetic place to experience trauma, blueness, desperation, the mysterious mystery, the loss of control and the ultimate fear of the unknown known. Through the media we are exposed to the overkill of the preoccupation of tragedy, where we are all on show as a passive audience. Finally, Finley gives us a glimpse into the devalued male body ready for war.
>> Non Stop Erotic Disco: Femmetopia X Nice Mover
@ VFD
9pm-3am // £7 (advance) £10 (OTD)
Nice Mover and Femmetopia grind hard against each other to bring you the filthiest weekend of your life. DJ sets from Pam Hogg, Bishi and Alexandra Loveless will get you dripping all each other. Performative climaxes erupt with Jeanie Crystal and Femme Feral’s hard and fast THERESAMAYSMACKDOWN.