This Autumn, The Garden Cinema is celebrating Ealing Comedies!

Every Wednesday, from October 25th and all the way to November, we will be screening a quintessential Ealing Comedy, followed by a discussion group in The Garden Cinema’s cosy den.

Grazia Ingravalle [QMUL] and Lawrence Napper [KCL] will be taking turns diving into The Ladykillers, Hue and Cry, The Man in the White Suit, Kind Hearts and Coronets, and Passport to Pimlico. They will be touching on the humour, political undertones, and lovable eccentricity of films that have made a mark on film history and are still admired by cinephiles worldwide. We will discuss Ealing’s depiction of communities and Britishness, light-hearted conservatism and gender stereotypes all the while revelling in their tongue-in-cheek comedy.

We will launch on 25 September with an Ealing Comedies inspired members’ party, followed by a screening of The Ladykillers, and a panel discussion between Grazia Ingravalle and Lawrence Napper to introduce Ealing Comedies and the season’s format. The evening will culminate with drinks in our plush cinema bar, where Lawrence and Grazia will informally discuss The Ladykillers with you over a dedicated Ealing Comedy cocktail. Let’s start the fun!

The masterpiece of Bangladeshi writer and director Tareque Masud (who was tragically killed in an accident in 2011), The Clay Bird was the first Bangladeshi film to compete for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, despite being initially banned in its home country.

Dr Priyanka Basu is a South Asian Studies scholar working at the intersections of literary, cultural and performative traditions, particularly in Bangladesh and India, and joined King’s College London in 2021.

Recorded on 1 August 2023 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ

Mike Leigh and Gary Yershon continue our season of live conversations, discussing his 2014 film Mr. Turner.

Mike Leigh’s portrait of the artist J.M.W. Turner is both a luminous tribute to the master of light and a fascinating, meticulous character study of a man who attained greatness whilst resisting the art-world conventions of his time.

To watch other recorded discussions in this series, including reflections on Secrets and Lies (1996), Naked (1993) and his other cinematic releases, visit our YouTube channel.

At The Garden Cinema, we welcome all film lovers and want our venue to be accessible to as many people as possible. This video will guide you through the cinema, explaining the accessible and step-free routes that will take you from the Box Office, to the bar, and to the screens.

We are continually working to improve our accessibility. If you have any thoughts or feedback on how we can make our venue more accessible, please email us at info@thegardencinema.co.uk

This October, to mark Black History Month, the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush in the UK, and following from our recent Francophone West African season, we’re filling our regular Musical Friday slots with music inspired films, documentaries, and musicals that explore Caribbean culture and history.

Our mini-season begins on these shores with an extremely rare cinema screening of Steve McQueen’s magnificent and joyful Lovers Rock (2020) on 6 October. This screening is free and included in the ticket for our Garden Cinema house party. Our very own Blues Party is in partnership with Lin Kam Art and will see contemporary sets from the next generation of British DJ talent as well as Linett Kamala herself spinning lover’s rock and classic dub from a vintage soundsystem provided by Audio Gold in our bar – stocked with Red Stripe, Guinness, rum, and maybe even a Cherry B…

The UK’s leading black music expert and author Lloyd Bradley (Sounds Like London, Bass Culture) will be on hand on 13 October to introduce a screening of the enduring Jamaican classic, The Harder They Come (1972), fresh from 50th anniversary screenings last year, and the centrepiece of Lloyd’s ‘From Jamaica to the World: Reggae on Film’ season for the BFI in 2022.

Described by bfi.org as ‘the African musical masterpiece you’ve never seen’ (and featuring in the recent Sight and Sound greatest films of all-time list), Med Hondo’s West Indies (1979) is a wholly unique and utterly astonishing Brechtian depiction and critique of colonial rule in the French West Indies. This UK premiere of a new digital restoration on 20 October will be followed by a panel discussion chaired by Theatrum Mundi co-director, curator, and poet, Labeja Kodua, and featuring Dr Sarah Jilani (City, University of London), and curator Abiba Coulibaly. The full list of panellists will be announced shortly.

The journey concludes on 27 October with the recent restoration and rediscovery of Kavery Kaul’s essential, nostalgic, and infectious document of the 1986 Trinidad and Tobago carnival, told through Calypso legends Lord Kitchener and Calypso Rose, One Hand Don’t Clap (1991). We’ll be pumping Soca and Calypso in the bar and serving up Dr Gee’s notorious rum punch all evening. Kavery Kaul herself will beam in via technology for a post screening Q&A/carnival memory sharing session.

Mike Leigh and Gary Yershon continue our season of live conversations, discussing his 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky.

Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is an irrepressibly cheerful primary school teacher who won’t let anyone or anything get her down. Living with her flatmate Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), Poppy has a gift for making the most of life. Determined to learn to drive, she finds herself matched with Scott (Eddie Marsan), an uptight driving instructor who is everything she is not.

For our second ever industry panel and members’ networking event, we were joined by Christina Papasotiriou (Senior Film Programmer at Raindance Film Festival) and Philip Ilson (Co-Director of the London Short Film Festival) who spoke with our own Abla Kandalaft to discuss all things film festivals.

Having started film programming in community cinemas, Christina Papasotiriou was Genesis Cinema’s Alternative Programming Manager where she brought the best of independent film to the people of East London as well as showcased work from underrepresented filmmakers; this translated to her leading the programming of the first edition of Genesis Cinema’s own Fragments Festival, which focuses on championing inclusivity though film. Currently Christina is the Senior Programmer at Raindance Film Festival, as well as part of team EFN – Emerging Filmmaker’s Night short film festival – which similarly to Raindance showcases early work from emerging directors.

Philip Ilson is the Co-Director of the London Short Film Festival, which he co-founded in 2004. He was also the short film programmer for the BFI London Film Festival between 2006 and 2022, and has worked as a freelance programmer, including at the East End Film Festival (London), Cork Film Festival (Ireland), and the Branchage Festival (Jersey), Latitude music festival, and at Curzon Soho Cinema.

Mike Leigh and Gary Yershon continue our season of live conversations, discussing his 1999 film Topsy-Turvy.

Mike Leigh’s dramatisation of the staging of the 1885 comic opera The Mikado stars Jim Broadbent and Allan Corduner. A lushly produced epic about the harsh realities of creative expression, featuring bravura performances and Oscar-winning costume design and makeup.