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Andro & Eve / One More Time With Feeling

Despite having hosted a hugely successful screening of But I'm A Cheerleader (Jamie Babbit, 1999), and this month showing the charming, low-key but gloriously observational Tomboy at Café #9 (see listings), Andro & Eve don’t just show movies. They create other events too, all designed to bring women together in Sheffield to celebrate queer culture and women’s creativity. They’ve already held a women-only brunch and have plans for music and live entertainment events, including a drag king night this November.

But Katherine and Rhiannon, the couple behind Andro & Eve, believe film has a special place in reaching out to an all-female audience. As Katherine put it, choosing to screen ‘queer’ films and those made by women, provides "a very good way to say who we are and who we’re for." She and Rhiannon are also upfront about being motivated by their personal wish to create events that, as Rhiannon says, "we would want to go to."

While interviewing them, this didn’t strike me as a selfish desire. Instead it comes from an acute awareness of the lack of events and venues in Sheffield where lesbian/queer women, and indeed women more generally, might feel comfortable, let alone feel specifically catered for. True to that feeling, already at the first couple of events, attendees have expressed just how pleased they are to find an opportunity to enjoy an evening that targets them as an audience, where they are not the interlopers. And many have revealed that usually, they just don’t go out at all, precisely because of the dearth of events for lesbians, in particular, in Sheffield.

While their film nights and brunches are for women only, including trans and non-binary people, Andro & Eve’s larger events will be women-centric spaces open to all, including cis men. They’re also supportive of local collectives like Girl Gang, who run non-exclusive screenings. Part of their aim is to actively promote alliances between heterosexual and queer women, so to me Andro & Eve’s approach comes as a welcome addition to Sheffield’s social life and film culture.

For more info, or if you have any questions, check out Andro & Eve’s Facebook page or contact them via Twitter.

Samantha Holland

@Andro_Eve
facebook.com/androandeve

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Andrew Dominik, UK/France, 2016

Whilst making his latest album, Skeleton Tree, Nick Cave experienced a tragic, unimaginable loss. What do you do when you are an intensely private individual and artist who experiences such an event? Well, in the case of Cave, you make a film. You call someone you trust and you ask them to make a film to in some way illustrate your state of mind. The result is raw, uncomfortable at times, and deeply affecting.

Although he doesn’t discuss directly the tragedy itself, Cave is at his most vulnerable and exposed. Gone is the familiar swagger, the confidence and arrogance. This is a changed man. What we see is a portrait of a man and his family as they negotiate returning to the world as a different set of people.

The movie starts with the track ‘Jesus Alone’. Brooding and dark, the undulating strings and electronics build and intensify until it becomes almost painful. Along with the black-and-white imagery of Cave at the piano, followed by Warren Ellis framed by the studio window orchestrating the strings section, it immediately strikes you that this is not a film you will ever forget.

Despite the darkness, there are light touches which keep you afloat. At one point, Cave asks if his hair looks okay and Ellis replies, "The best it has ever been." In another lovely moment, Cave speaks over a shot of Ellis working, commenting, "What would I do without him? He is holding everything together."

And that’s what it feels like this film is about. With some extremely candid moments, Cave has produced a document of his love for his family and friends. Yes, it's a film about grief and suffering, but the dominant theme is one of love, family, hope and the future. Cave has always looked forward in his art and this is something he somehow manages to retain in this beautiful film.

Dawn Stilwell


Film Listings

Hosted by Samantha Holland

TOMBOY
Celine Sciamma, France, 2011
Fri 7 October | 7:30pm | Cafe #9, Nether Edge | £6 | Women only
Andro & Eve present this understated drama about childhood gender identity confusion. Touching and gently humorous, it tells of ten-year-old Laure, who, mistaken for a boy, becomes Mickäel for the summer. Coffee, cake and a real gem of a film in cosy Cafe #9. Please note: women only.
wegottickets.com/event/372427

SEMBENE! + Q&A
Jason Silverman & Samba Gadjigo, 2015
Mon 10 October | 6pm | Showroom | £8.50/£6.30
Screening as part of The Best of Doc/Fest, Sembene tells the incredible story of the ‘father of African cinema’, a self-taught novelist and filmmaker who fought a 50-year-long battle against enormous odds to give African stories to Africans.
showroomworkstation.org.uk/sembene-qanda

FILM NIGHT on SAMHAIN
Ian Nesbitt/Annexinema
Thu 27 October | 7pm | Regather Works | £7/£5.
Sheffield-based filmmaker Ian Nesbitt will be screening experimental films and films by artists to celebrate the Pagan festival of Samhain at Regather’s film night, drawing on his own work, as well as Annexinema’s archive.
regather.net

CELLULOID SCREAMS ‘VAMPIRES VS WEREWOLVES’ ALL-NIGHTER
Sat 22 October | 11.55pm | Showroom | £26/£21
This year's Celluloid Screams all-night extravaganza features backpacking trauma following a visit to the Slaughtered Lamb in An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981); visually, viscerally and verbally superb The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987); gentle Michael J. Fox vehicle Teen Wolf (Rod Daniel, 1985), and From Dusk Till Dawn (Robert Rodriguez, 1996). Find a preview of Celluloid Screams on the blog.
showroomworkstation.org.uk/allnighter

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