Sev­en things to see at the 2016 East End Film Festival

Now in its 16^th year, the East End Film Fes­ti­val opens its doors once more on the 23 June for 10 jam-packed days of movie-relat­ed fun times. Here we dis­till the pro­gram­mers vast array of selec­tions down to just sev­en activ­i­ties that we’d rec­om­mend tak­ing a punt on…

Psych Space is an evening explor­ing the bound­aries between sound and image, show­cas­ing a range of live per­for­mances that look at the con­join­ing of music and film. A live rein­ter­pre­ta­tion of Pas de Deux kick-starts the night, fol­lowed by a mix­ture of manip­u­lat­ed funk/​electronic music and live per­for­mances set against footage (includ­ing mind-melt­ing French sci-fi Fan­tas­tic Plan­et) in what is set to be a remark­able evening of eye and ear can­dy. Fri­day 24 June: Details

If you’ve ever won­dered what the city looks like with­out the com­mut­ing mass­es in your way (or haven’t yet made it home from Sat­ur­day night’s antics), this pho­tog­ra­phy tour of East Lon­don is a great way to take advan­tage of hav­ing the streets to your­self. Begin­ning at 4:15am along the Thames and end­ing at Spi­tal­fields Mar­ket before the mar­kets open, the tour cov­ers the his­to­ry of East Lon­don at dawn, show­ing how art is affect­ed by ris­ing of the sun. Sun­day 26 June: Details

In an age dri­ven by so many of us try­ing to find love through dat­ing apps (name­ly Tin­der) and try­ing to main­tain rela­tion­ships spread across vast cities (name­ly Lon­don), we think Jan Hillman’s debut fea­ture feels very time­ly. Bit­ter­suite piv­ots around three friends across the Eng­lish cap­i­tal, por­tray­ing the inti­ma­cy of the friend­ships and rela­tion­ships of a dig­i­tal gen­er­a­tion, tied togeth­er by the trans­porta­tion of sec­ond-hand home fur­nish­ings. Mon­day 27 June: Details

Claire Leona Apps’ Brit thriller cen­tres round self-dis­cov­ery and the dan­ger­ous con­se­quences of falling in love, or in this case, lust. The film traces the jour­ney of Cara (Joan­na Van­der­ham), a mas­sage stu­dent who strug­gles to free her­self from the pain of unrec­i­p­ro­cat­ed love when her new beau Jay becomes engulfed by the pul­sat­ing par­ty scene (and oth­er temp­ta­tions) of East Lon­don. Wednes­day 29 June: Details

Loss is some­thing we’re all famil­iar with in some way, be it the mourn­ing of a time gone by or the pass­ing of a loved one. One of 12 shorts pro­grams in the fes­ti­val, In Pass­ing com­pris­es a series of films explor­ing this impor­tant and uni­ver­sal sub­ject. Of the eight shorts fea­tured, Matthew Hopper’s Rum­ble (the sto­ry of a deaf box­er who is faced with the deci­sion of giv­ing up box­ing for an oper­a­tion that could allow him to hear again) looks like a poten­tial high­light. Thurs­day 30 June: Details

Ket­tling of the Voic­es unveils the real­i­ty behind polic­ing in Britain after the attacks of ⁹⁄₁₁. British film­mak­er Chester Yang fol­lows Bri­an and Ethan (two British stu­dents protest­ing against increas­ing tuition fees) as they unveil the shock­ing rev­e­la­tions behind the pow­ers of the police force. Footage from the front­line and inter­views with key activists iden­ti­fy a con­cern­ing lev­el of sur­veil­lance, and the film­mak­ers inves­ti­gate a wor­ry­ing stance of those in pow­er regard­ing the ban­ning of polit­i­cal protest. This is def­i­nite­ly one to watch. Thurs­day 30 June: Details

Suj Ahmed’s The Gates of Van­i­ty acts as a reminder of why so many of us are afraid to go out of our way to help a stranger. Based in the Lon­don bor­ough of Hack­ney, this debut fea­ture focus­es on new­ly-employed Ben, who decides to take in a home­less man when his fam­i­ly goes away. A minor dis­agree­ment, how­ev­er, insti­gates a dis­turb­ing turn of events after the dis­agree­ment caus­es a psy­chot­ic reac­tion from his guest, who then holds him cap­tive and abus­es him. Ben is left to find the strength to fight back, but will he suc­ceed in reclaim­ing his life? Sun­day 3 July: Details

For more info and to check out the full pro­gramme vis­it eas​t​end​film​fes​ti​val​.com