ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
Life in Love Pt.1, dir. Abel Rubinstein
The 21st LSFF opens with a programme of repertory and new short film that focuses on desire, touch and relationships, made by British filmmakers. In our atomised lives, the craving to know and be known permeates our every interaction, and a thread of intimacy runs through the festival programme this year. Do we ever truly know who shares our beds, our bodies? This collection of short films curated by the LSFF team celebrates chance encounters, sexual abandon, kink and consent. Entwined with the opening night programme in the ICA Theatre and our Touch Me Free programme at FOLD, we invite you to join the filmmakers in conversation after the screening.
Clio Barnard’s (The Arbor, Ali and Ava) groundbreaking lip-synced documentary Random Acts of Intimacy features an early performance from Isla Fisher. Campbell X (Stud Life) documents the complexities of love and lust for queer masculinity in DES!RE. Writer/director/actors Anna Maguire (With Love and a Major Organ, Violation) and Freya Mavor (Skins, Sunshine on Leith) both explore the interconnection of love, lust and loss in their personal and intimate films Constellations and Kinked. Directors Anna Thew and Abel Rubinstein delve into kink and consent amongst young Londoners, from the early 90s in Thew’s Cling Film to contemporary youth culture in Rubinstein’s Life in Love.
Cling Film, dir. Anna Thew, UK 1993, 22mins
Random Acts of Intimacy, dir. Clio Barnard, UK 1998, 15mins
DES!RE, dir. Campbell X, UK 2017, 10mins
Constellations, dir. Anna Maguire, UK 2018, 18mins
Life in Love Pt.1, dir. Abel Rubinstein, UK 2022, 14mins
Kinked, dir. Freya Mavor, UK 2023, 22mins
Total runtime: 101mins
06:30 pm
Fri, 19 Jan 2024
Cinema 1
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student and pensioner) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
All films are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with a 10 min. curated selection of trailers.
Red Members gain unlimited access to all exhibitions, films, talks, performances and Cinema 3.
Join today for £20/month.
no. 236848.