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London Short Film Festival 2020
Institute of Contemporary Arts
10 – 19 January 2020



Now in its 17th year, London Short Film Festival is recognised as the premiere UK showcase for cutting-edge homegrown and international short film.

The festival’s New Shorts programme proves the grassroots of the film industry are stronger than ever, with an eclectic repertoire of short works and artists’ film from across the globe presented in International Competition in partnership with frieze.

LSFF 2020’s curated special events look to an enduring agenda of experimentation and subversion – from an opening night curated by Fringe! Queer Arts & Film Fest to Public Intimacies, which looks to autoethnography, representation, and the power of self-documentation.
 
Programme



Friday 10 January, 6:30pm
A retrospective of early works from the now established artists who have defined the festival’s 17-year dedication to experimental filmmaking.



Friday 10 January, 8:00pm
Curated by Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, an evening of film and performance embodying the radical history and provocative spirit of alternative drag.



Friday 10 January, 9:00pm
A programme of dark comedies kicks off the 17th edition of LSFF.



Saturday 11 January, 1:00pm
A programme of tender vignettes which look to the physical and mental strains of alienation.



Saturday 11 January, 7:00pm
Luscious celluloid and glitchy digital textures collide in this international compendium of experimental work.



Saturday 11 and Tuesday 14 January, 3:00pm
A programme of shorts which are in the running for LSFF’s Best International Short Film Award.



Saturday 11 January, 5:00pm, Wednesday 15 January, 3:00pm
Featuring works from artist filmmakers Ja’Tovia Gary and Pedro Neves Marques, a programme of shorts which are in the running for LSFF’s Best International Short Film Award.



Saturday 11 January, 9:00pm
A VHS mega-compilation traversing the band’s big hits and early punk tracks.



Sunday 12 January, 1:00pm
An eclectic selection of six short films which explore the emotional, physical and political relationships people build with their surroundings.



Sunday 12 and Thursday 16 January, 3:00pm
International short films navigate the ecstasy and pain wrought by living in the present tense.



Sunday 12 January, 5:00pm and Friday 17 January, 3:00pm
Unpacking the role of the archive in the representation of myth and memory.



Sunday 12 January, 7:00pm
Four powerful new voices span CGI and hand-drawn animation, documentary and artist’s video.



Tuesday 14 January, 7:00pm
Meditative documentaries bring you a tonic for the uneasy speed of life.



Tuesday 14 January, 9:00pm
Six experimental films consider how vestiges of past violence can continue to occupy contemporary spaces.



Wednesday 15 January, 9:00pm
Through the lenses of pan-African filmmakers, London Short Film Festival explores the auditory experience of ‘listening’ to a film.



Wednesday 15 January, 7:00pm
A programme of documentaries which question the way we relate to spaces, lives and histories beyond our immediate experience.



Thursday 16 January, 7:00pm
Hybrid documentary works expand our understanding of how we connect to others and ourselves.



Thursday 16 January, 9:00pm
Darkly comic short films pay their dues at the altar of Lucille Hadžihalilović and Gaspar Noé.



Friday 17 January, 7:00pm
A programme of documentaries which look to comment on, react against and subvert heteronormativity.



Friday 17 January, 9:00pm
An unflinching look at the human body from four artist-filmmakers.



Saturday 18 January, 1:00pm
Musician and filmmaker Baloji curates works exploring experimentation in contemporary African cinema.



Saturday 18 January, 3:30pm
A programme of shorts depicting diaristic articulations of the self, featuring pre-internet video diaries and contemporary works of autoethnography.



Saturday 18 January, 5:30pm
Illustrated lectures explore how lived experience, subjectivity and academic inquiry can be mobilised to reclaim space that is otherwise mediated by whiteness.



Saturday 18 January, 5:30pm
Curated excerpts from Anne Charlotte Robertson’s Five Year Diary (1981 – 97).



Sunday 19 January, 3:00pm
Readings from curator Jemma Desai and artist Jasleen Kaur contextualise the experimental works of Alia Syed.



Sunday 19 January, 5:00pm
Seven female filmmakers from Iran discuss their relationship to nationhood in emotive diaristic vignettes. 



Sunday 19 January, 7:30pm
All the competition winners from this year’s festival in one programme.