What came before LSFF? Some may know that the festival began its life as the Halloween Society, an itinerant London film club co-founded by Philip Ilson in 1994; one of many underground, alternative film collectives across the capital and across the decade.
Positioned firmly outside of the mainstream, the filmmakers that emerged from the scene nevertheless began to receive funding from the BFI, Channel 4 and Arts Councill England to create new work, whilst retaining a DIY, kinetic and radical spirit on the screen. Britpop and Cool Brittania may have dominated the media mainstream, but this rich seam of underground filmmaking and basement screenings offered a snapshot of real life from across London.
This special opening screening of LSFF brings together rarely-seen early films from filmmakers including Peter Strickland, Carol Morley, Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Alnoor Dewshi.
Followed by a Q&A with attending filmmakers.
