When the ICA Cinema opened on The Mall in 1968, it did not open to the public. Instead, under the guise ‘Club Deluxe’ it operated as a film club screening new works evolving outside the mainstream, for ICA Members only. This conception was a sign of the times, both in tune with the unabashed enthusiasm for a medium in the midst of revolution and in opposition to a rampant censorship that meant new revelatory works like Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend were deemed un-rateable and thus illegal to show to the general public.

Cinema in 2023 finds itself in a very different position than it did in 1968. Amidst a rampant corporatisation and generally insipid and risk-averse spirit, it is easy to become despondent about the future of cinema today, to wonder if we are in that ‘ignominious, irreversible decline’ that Susan Sontag wrote about more than two decades ago. In a time of artistic uniformity, of remarkably style-less house styles, the need for spaces dedicated to truly independent and original voices is as desperate in 2023 as it was in 1968. The obstacles may have changed but the necessity of overcoming them has not.

As the spaces dedicated to showcasing work outside the commercial sphere continue to shrink, the life cycle for a film beyond its festival run remains uncertain. In the same spirit with which Club Deluxe was founded, Off-circuit aims to provide a platform to new films that have yet to receive a proper spotlight in the UK, facilitating a continuous connection between these profoundly rich works and audiences on the lookout for something new and different.

Off-Circuit offers audiences a chance to encounter this generation's landmark films on screen for the very first time, carving out a much-needed theatrical space for this generation's seminal and medium-redefining artists.

Programme



Until 9 October
LONDON PREMIERE
Invention
In the aftermath of a conspiracy-minded father’s unexpected death, his daughter receives his patent for an experimental healing device in this striking collaboration between filmmaker Courtney Stephens and actress Callie Hernandez.




Friday 24 October, 6.45pm
UK PREMERE 
Levers + online Q&A 
Filmed on broken Bolex cameras and developed from a script of loose poetry, Levers traces a series of oneiric encounters in the Red River Valley following a sudden blackout after the unveiling of a new sculpture.

More screenings from 25 October.




Friday 7 November, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE
Fantaisie + Q&A
Lost in her fears and fantasies, a young woman writes in a notebook. A young man finds this notebook on a train. Suddenly, they find themselves in the heart of a forest, in a nocturnal reality where dreams come to life in Isabel Pagliai’s first feature.

More screenings from 8 November.




Friday 21 November, 6.15pm
UK PREMIERE 
Fiume o morte! + Q&A
Igor Bezinović weaves archive and interview to recount poet and military officer Gabriele D’Annunzio’s radical 1919 occupation of Fiume (Rijeka, Croatia), revealing the stirrings of European fascism in the wake of World War I.

More screenings from 22 November.




Friday 5 December, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE 
I Only Rest in the Storm + Q&A
Sergio, an environmental engineer from Portugal, travels to Guinea-Bissau for an impact report. There, lonely in the heat, he encounters Diara and Guilermhe and begins to approach the post-colonial and capitalist forces shaping their lives.

More screenings from 6 December.

Past Programme

#38
Afternoons of Solitude
dir. Albert Serra

#37
Measures for a Funeral
dir. Sofia Bohdanowicz

#36
Việt and Nam
dir. Trương Minh Quý

#35
What Does That Nature Say to You
dir. Hong Sangsoo

#34
The Tree of Authenticity
dir. Sammy Baloji

#33
The Triptych of Mondongo
dir. Mariano Llinás

#32
When the Phone Rang
dir. Iva Radivojević

#31
Spring Night
dir. Kang Mi-ja

#30
Bury Us in a Lone Desert
dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc

#29
Caught by the Tides
dir. Jia Zhangke

#28
DIRECT ACTION
dirs. Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell

#27
Jimmy
dir. Yashaddai Owens

#26
bluish
dirs. Lilith Kraxner & Milena Czernovsky

#25
By the Stream
dir. Hong Sangsoo

#24
Favoriten
dir. Ruth Beckermann

#23
C'est pas moi
dir. Leos Carax

#22
True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956
dir. Abdenour Zahzah

#21
Matt and Mara
dir. Kazik Radwanski

#20
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be
dir. Klára Tasovská

#19
Last Things + Memories of an Unborn Sun
dir. Deborah Stratman
dir. Marcel Mrejen

#18
Our Body
dir. Claire Simon

#16
Outside Noise
dir. Ted Fendt

#15
A Prince
dir. Pierre Creton

#14
Foremost by Night
dir. Victor Iriarte

#13
You Burn Me
dir. Matías Piñeiro

#12
Regardless of Us
dir. Yoo Heong-jun

#11
Mambar Pierrette
dir. Rosine Mbakam

#10
Grace
dir. Ilya Povolotsky

#9
The Human Surge 3
dir. Eduardo Williams

#8
Music
dir. Angela Schanelec

#7
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
dir. Phạm Thiên An

#6
Unrest
dir. Cyril Schäublin

#5
A Woman Escapes in 3D
dirs. Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik, Blake Williams

#4
Mal Viver
dir. João Canijo

#4
Viver Mal
dir. João Canijo

#3
Pictures of Ghosts
dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho

#2
Human Flowers of Flesh
dir. Helena Wittmann

#1
Man in Black
dir. Wang Bing