Podcast Episode · The Needle: A Film Podcast · 5 August · 51min

A long title for a gently inquisitive film, as a ten-year-old girl comes to terms with life, death and trust. Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song has its UK premiere at the Raindance Film Festival from 25th June. Ida (Lana Marić) is ten years old and lives in rural Yugoslavia (in the area now called Slovenia) with her mother (Judita Franković Brdar), father (Matej Puc) and grandmother.

That Time of the Month with Naga Munchetty, Dr Nighat Arif and Dr Christine Ekechi

Wheelchair Access, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets

An intriguing and revealing story about family and male role models from the point of view of a Vietnamese immigrant family in Czechia. Summer School 2001 plays at the Raindance Film Festival from 20th June. The feature debut of Czech-Vietnamese film director Dužan Duong, Summer School 2001, draws on the director’s own personal experiences to present a complex and intimate story of family, and in particular a father and his two sons.

A bizarre crime, in broad daylight, with no obvious motive opens Nameless, and the hunt for the violent, unknown assailant begins. Adapted from the Japanese manga, Nameless plays at the Raindance Film Festival from 20th June. This is not the first film to go by the title Nameless and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But just to avoid any confusion, this one is a psychological horror/thriller based on the Japanese…

Remember when people hadn’t heard of Baz Luhrmann? His very first feature film Strictly Ballroom makes an entrance in fab-u-lous 4K this month, and it is an absolute delight! From the moment that the red curtains part, revealing the high-octane, sharp-elbowed world of competitive ballroom dancing, viewers of a certain age will know that they are in for a treat.

A touching and very human debut feature from Japanese writer/director Miiku Sakanishi on connection with others and how (and why) we capture memories to preserve moments in time. Memorizu has its World Premiere at Tribeca Festival on 6th June. Director Miiku Sakanishi sets the tone from the outset of his feature debut, with the opening images showing different people sitting looking outwards as the sea and landscape are framed in the window of a ferry.

As Alexander Zverev closes in on a near-certain French Open title, a sport that once held its breath is now sighing.

A German teenager unexpectedly organises one of the greatest jazz events of all time, involving Miles Davis’ keyboard player and a gang of her friends. This ‘based on a true story’ madness is the background to Köln 75, a story which, if it wasn’t true, you’d be hard-pressed to make it up. I think that director Ido Fluk was going for a bit of a free-flowing, fluidly structured film in homage to the jazz music that…