In the Works is our regular series of screenings and informal conversations with guests from all areas of the industry, hosted by Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon. Gary’s guest is the Academy Award winning sound editor, Nina Hartstone. Aside from Moonage Daydream, for which she won an Emmy, Nina’s credits include Everest, Saltburn, and her Oscar-winning work on Bohemian Rhapsody.

Visit us at The Garden Cinema for more In The Works with Gary Yershon:
https://www.thegardencinema.co.uk/partner/in-the-works/

Recorded on 1st September 2024 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Thu 05 Sep — Thu 03 Oct 2024 – Book tickets here.

Following our popular New Taiwanese Cinema season in Autumn 2023, we are delighted to launch a new strand, supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, to showcase the best of classic and contemporary filmmaking from the region. Join us throughout September for a celebration of two legendary director-actor collaborations, a martial arts classic, and some incredible recent debut feature films.

The iconic actor and filmmaker Lee Kang-sheng will be at the cinema in person for two Q&As exploring his career-long creative partnership with director Tsai Ming-liang. Lee will be discussing their most recent narrative feature Days (2020), as well as their 1997 masterpiece, The River. Additionally, King’s College London will welcome Lee for a free masterclass session examining his unique approach to filmmaking and performance on 10 September. Meanwhile, director Tsai himself will join us via Zoom for a post-screening Q&A for Where, the 2022 entry into his ongoing artist moving image series, ‘The Walker’.

Our spotlight also highlights the great Hou Hsiao-hsien, and his 21st Century collaborations with the luminous actress Shu Qi. The recent restoration of Millennium Mambo (2001) screens alongside the triptych love story Three Times (2005), as well as Hou’s last film, the beautiful wuxia, The Assassin (2015).

King Hu’s masterly A Touch of Zen (1970) represents the classic era of kung-fu cinema within the season. A sweeping epic of stunning mountains and forests, graceful fight choreography, and Buddhist inflections, A Touch of Zen‘s enduring legacy inspires martial arts filmmakers to this day. We approach the present with some of the best work created by Taiwanese directors in recent years. Huang Hsin-yao’s extremely funny satire The Great Buddha+ (2017) is now rightly considered a modern classic, and plays in a double bill with Huang’s ‘prelude’ short film, The Great Buddha (2014). Huang will also discuss the films in an online Q&A following the initial screening on 28 September. This exposé of the cynical exploitation of religion resonates strongly with Elvis Lu’s study of his own family’s reliance on divine guidance and rituals, in his documentary, A Holy Family (2022). Fiona Roan’s moving coming-of-age story American Girl (2021) depicts Taiwan through the eyes of a US teenager returning to her ancestral home, and is juxtaposed with another recent diasporic tale: the Sundance prize-winning Dìdi (2024). Sean Wang’s autobiographic debut recreates his experience as a second generation Asian-American, and received critical acclaim upon its recent release.

This film was selected for our programme and introduced by Anupma Shanker. Anupma is a British-Indian film curator and archives researcher, with a deep and evolving interest in colonial & post-colonial screen narratives.

A silent spectacle featuring an all-Indian cast of thousands, lavish costumes and gorgeous settings, Shiraz: A Romance of India is based on the true story -or a romanticized version- of the 17th-century Mughal ruler Shah Jahan and the events leading to the construction of the world’s most beautiful monument to love, the Taj Mahal, in memory of his dead queen, Mumtaz Mahal.

Debut director Rezwan Sumit was awarded the Spike Lee Fellowship to produce this exquisite drama set in the Ganges Delta in Bangladesh. Momtaz Begum-Hossain is an award-winning journalist and podcaster who has reported from festivals including BFI London and Cannes. She has delivered workshops for Film London and hosted Q&As with Film Directors at venues including the BFI Southbank, Rich Mix, Picturehouse Cinemas and Cineworld.

Recorded on 7th August 2024 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Original Copy is an essential documentary for cinephiles. A ravishing declaration of love to the cinema and its heroes both on and behind the big screen. Dr Ashvin Immanuel Devasundaram is a lecturer in World Cinema at Queen Mary University of London.

Recorded on 29th July 2024 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Queen of My Dreams opened our South Asian Heritage Month season and was introduced by Dr Kulraj Phullar, a London-based Film Studies teacher and researcher.

Dr Kulraj Phullar is a London-based Film Studies teacher and researcher. His interests include classic Hollywood cinema, British colonial and diasporic cinemas, and popular Indian cinemas. He currently teaches at MetFilm School and the National Film and Television School.

Recorded on 17th July 2024 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Inspired by your suggestions on The Garden Cinema Members’ Area, and passionate campaigning for your favourite films, our Members’ Summer Selection returns once again. We’ve taken into account support and upvotes from the community, as well as particularly persuasive rationales, and can now reveal our class of 2024.