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London Short Film Festival 2023
Institute of Contemporary Arts
20 – 29 January 2023



The London Short Film Festival celebrates its 20th edition over nine days with packed programmes of short films, supplemented with panel discussions, Q&As and live performances. 

More information at shortfilms.org.uk
 
Programme:


Friday 20 January, 6.30pm
The opening screening of the festival celebrates the work and careers of some of its illustrious alumni, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers.



Friday 20 January, 7pm
m a t e k o i 
Audio-visual duo m a t e k o i takes over the Theatre for a special performance combining strobing visuals and live electronics.


 
Friday 20 January, 9.30pm
Funny Shit
As tradition requires, the Funny Shit programme opens the festival with a selection of the year's finest comedy shorts.


 
Saturday 21 January, 3pm
Animation: Slippery Border
A sensual, twisting selection of animation from across the world, loosely drawn together through themes of death, incarceration, transcendence and fantasy worlds from other planes of existence.




A series of short films curated by Stone Club traversing Britain and Irelands ancient landscapes.




Saturday 21 January, 7.15pm
Documentary: A Smoke of Sacrifice, a Rage against Love and Death
LSFF’s first International Documentary programme focuses on collective radical activism coming to the fore across the world and across decades.




Saturday 21 January, 9.15pm
Documentary: Silence All My Dreams: I'll be Okay When You No Longer Haunt My Dreams
Featuring films from Lebanon, Estonia, and the UK, this collection of shorts picks at our scabs of loss and misunderstanding.




Sunday 22 January, 3pm
Polityka i animacja: Animated Film in the Polish People's Republic
A showcase of animated shorts created during the Polish People’s Republic and documenting post-war Poland’s history.




Sunday 22 January, 5pm
Documentary: Call for The Songs of The Wind
From the mountains of Greece to the canals of the UK, the filmmakers of this programme quietly observe their surroundings and ask: do we really belong to our local surroundings when nature ultimately (re)claims that space?




Tuesday 24 January, 6.30pm
Not Too Sweet
Highlighting work by filmmakers of East and Southeast Asian heritage, this programme explores the twisty, tangy, melty role of food across East and South East Asian cultures.




Tuesday 24 January, 8.30pm
ALT/KINO: Do Androids Dream on Silver Screens?
ALT/KINO presents a programme of experimental films made with algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.




Wednesday 25 January, 6.30pm
International Competition 1: (not) A Labour of Love
Three short films explore the act of performing through the prism of labour.



Wednesday 25 January, 8.30pm
Otherness Archive: Biting the Image
Featuring films from the Otherness Archive, a visual archive documenting queer films and its pioneers, these works by trans filmmakers exemplify a breadth of filmic play, experimentation, and inventiveness.




Wednesday 25 January 2022, 7pm 
International Competition 2: Through Mist and Fogs, it Screams Through The Bones 
Confinement of the mind can instigate a reign of terror. This programme features stories of spiritual journeys in turbulent times.




Thursday 26 January, 6.30pm
Desired Outcomes + Conversation
This programme of moving image work curated by artist Annie Crabtree imagines alternative modes of collective care and individual agency via the racial and queer politics of the sick body.




Thursday 26 January, 8.30pm
International Competition 3: By The Skin of My Grief, I Kept Dancing When The Song was Over
Poring over shared histories and family affairs, reality translates into an anticlimactic prophecy of romance.




Long-time collaborators visual artist Anne Verheij and composer Cassie Kinoshi join for an in-depth exploration of their experimental film and immersive installation work together.




Friday 27 January, 9pm
International Competition 4: Notes on Grey, Blue and Green
The distraught blue, searching for the virtues of feeling blue. In the shadows of green, roaming figures seek renewal and abundance. Can the mourning of grey wash away the tears, and will the brown sorrow release the deserted from terrains of agony?




Saturday 28 January, 1pm
Documentary: In Response To, Resisting / Remaking
This programme of shorts from around the globe treats both personal and national identity with fluidity, examining how the politics of the street inform the politics of being.




Saturday 28 January, 3pm
One For All: Trade Unions in the Archive Unions 
This collection of archive film explores the rise, decline and rebirth of the trade union movement in Britain.




Saturday 28 January, 5.15pm
Maryam Tafakory: Rememberings
In solidarity with the feminist revolution in Iran, this programme, curated by artist and filmmaker Maryam Tafakory, brings together films that explore personal and collective histories and memories.




Saturday 28 January, 7.30pm
The Short Films of Kazik Radwanski + Q&A
A retrospective of one of the progenitors of the Toronto New Wave.




Sunday 29 January, 1pm
Tower
LSFF's retrospective dedicated to Kazik Radwanski's short films is the occasion to rediscover his acclaimed feature debut – a microbudget psychodrama on a thirty-something loner who tries to keep the world at arm’s length.




Sunday 29 January, 3pm
T A P E Presents: Miryam Charles
A retrospective of the Haitian-Quebecer filmmaker’s short films, followed by an extended conversation with Miryam Charles.