Film Hub Fortnightly – July 2021 Part 1

This includes the Newcastle Community Cinema, which will be showing the Oscar-nominated The Sound of Metal  (2020), starring Riz Ahmed, on the 17^th at their venue on Newcastle’s main street.

Over at the Queen’s Film Theatre, there is a whole host of new titles. Showing until the 8^th, Slalom (2021) is a dark drama about the troubling relationship between a 15-year-old, French Olympic Skiing Team hopeful (Noée Abita) and her coach (Jérémie Renier). Also on the 8^th, there will be a special ‘relaxed screening’ of The Reason I Jump (2020), a documentary featuring several intimate portraits of non-verbal autism.

Showing from the 9^th to the 11, and then again from the 13^th to the 15^th, Tove (2020) is a biopic of the Moomins creator Tove Jansson (Alma Pöysti), depicting the flourishing of her art life and her passionate love affair with Vivica Bandler (Krista Kosonen). While Martin Eden (2019) is the critically acclaimed adaptation of the Jack London novel from director Pietro Marcello, who transplants this story of a young working-class man’s artistic and political awakening to mid-20^th century Naples.

Screening on the 10^th and the 11^th, Nashville (1975) is the newly restored masterpiece by Robert Altman, charting an epic ensemble as they make their way through highs and lows in the Mecca of country music.

Showing on the 14^th and then again from the 16^th to the 22^nd, Deerskin (2020) is a French black comedy, about a man determined to possess the finest jacket in the world, whatever the cost. The 16^th to the 22^nd will also see a run of Summer Of Soul (...Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021), the debut film from musician Ahmir-Khalib Thompson, better known as Questlove. It documents, using archival footage, the radical Harlem Cultural Festival which took place over 6 weeks in the summer of 1969. While Nowhere Special (2020) is a Northern Irish, filmed and set, drama about a terminally ill single father (James Norton) who sets out to find the perfect family to adopt his 4-year old son.

At the Strand Arts Centre, you could also see Nowhere Special from the 16^th, and they will be showing Black Widow (2021), the newest Marvel movie, starring Scarlett Johansson, which opens from the 9^th.

You can also see Black Widow at all four Movie House sites. Additionally, at the City Side location, you can see Fatima (2021), a drama about a ten-year-old shepherdess in rural Portugal who claims to be visited by visions of the Virgin Mary. While Freaky (2021), showing at City Side, Glengormley and Coleraine, is a horror comedy starring Vince Vaughn about a high school girl who swaps bodies with a serial killer.

You can  find Covid-19 safety information for venues here:

Queen's Film Theatre
Movie House Cinemas
Strand Arts Centre

By Ruairí McCann