Independent cinema has returned to Manchester with a bang as HOME reopened last weekend with a socially-distanced performance by Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, a surprise DJ set from Mr Scruff and sold-out film screenings.
Dave Moutrey, Director and CEO of HOME, said: “For the last 10 years working with our team on the planning, building, opening and overseeing the running of HOME has been a massive part of my life. Although we have been able to continue to work together during the enforced 168 days of closure, reopening on Friday morning and being in the same space as our team and our audiences doing what we do best gave me a huge emotional lift that was amplified many, many times by the comments and love we got from audiences and colleagues in the cultural sector. I’m still buzzing now!”
HOME also announced today that they will be screening films as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival – including a free showing of multi-award-winning director Steve McQueen’s Mangrove on Wednesday, 7 October.
Jason Wood, Director of Film and Culture at HOME, said: “This is a great initiative from the BFI London Film Festival that follows on from our successful collaboration on the UK premiere of Mike Leigh’s Peterloo. It’s an important development in the evolution of the festival as it genuinely encourages audiences across the country to engage with a wider diversity of cinematic culture. It also serves as an act of unity, moving away from the notion of London as the epicentre of culture. Any scheme that helps bring people together is to be applauded.”
Also showing will be Josephine Decker’s Shirley, starring Elisabeth Moss as America’s queen of horror fiction, Shirley Jackson (Friday, 9 October) and Garrett Bradley’s Time, an epic personal journey of hardship and hope, which reveals the devastating effects of mass incarceration on Black communities in America (Sunday, 11 October).
Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci star as lovers facing the spectre of early onset dementia in Supernova (Monday, 12 October), and Riz Ahmed appears in Mogul Mowgli (Tuesday, 13 October), a paean to the importance of cultural heritage and a sharply observed reflection on muscle memory. David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee, reflects on human connections, life and how on earth we work through it (Wednesday, 14 October) while After Love sees Mary Hussain (Joanna Scanlan ) grappling with the unexpected death of her husband when she stumbles upon a secret connection he had across the Channel, in Calais.
Frances McDorman stars in Nomadland, a compassionate study of the precious community that has grown out of the ruins of America’s brutal service economy (Friday, 16 October), and the programme closes with Francis Lee’s highly-anticipated Ammonite, a fictionalised account of the life of the 19th century palaeontologist Mary Anning, played by Kate Winslet.
Tickets for BFI London Film Festival screenings at HOME go on sale to HOME Friends on Monday, 14 September, members on Tuesday, 15 September, and on general sale on Wednesday, 16 September.
¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival returns after lockdown postponement
From this Friday there will be the return of the ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival 2020 which was partway through in March when the lockdown was first implemented. Having opened to packed screens in March, hopes were high for a record-breaking year.
All screenings will take place in HOME’s largest screen, Cinema 1, but reduced capacity means seats are extremely limited and advance booking is recommended now more than ever.
The revived festival will feature 24 screenings over three weeks – 19 feature-length films from Spain and Latin America, including four UK cinema premieres, and four new Spanish short films screening before selected features.
The film feast begins on Friday, 11 September with the UK premiere of Costa Rican director Antonella Sudasassi’s debut El Despertar de las hormigas, which celebrates female empowerment as a put-upon housewife wakes up to her own dreams and desires. Tuesday, 15 September sees a treat for fans of alternative cinema with another UK premiere, Mirador from Uruguay, plus a short film from San Sebastian, Ya está.
On Thursday, 24 September our best attended film from the first half of the festival makes a final appearance, La Hija de un ladrón, from Catalan filmmaker Belén Funes. Plus there are two more chances to see another big hit in Manchester, Mientras dure la guerra, Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar’s big budget historical drama set in 1936.
Other ¡Viva! 2020 highlights include the latest films from well-known Chilean director Andrés Wood (Araña) and the Argentinian filmmaker Carlos Sorín (Joel). Plus we’re proud to present a number of debut feature-length films, including Ana García Blaya’s homage to her late father (Las Buenas intenciones). We also present the UK premiere of Mexican documentary Tote abuelo, filmed in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, and of Cholitas, a documentary following five indigenous Bolivian women scaling the heights of Mount Aconcagua.
For more information about all upcoming film screenings at HOME, visit www.homemcr.org.
