Culture Diary w/c 30-05-2023

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events – and loads of it’s free!

Tuesday – Devi (The Goddess) 7pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8/£10

Kicking off resident artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s film season, Satyajit Ray’s Devi (The Goddess) – a 1960 Bengali-language Hindu drama – is widely regarded as a classic. Exploring the conflict between fanaticism and free will, through the lens of nineteenth century rural India, Ray’s film challenges both religious orthodoxy and patriarchal power structures.

Wednesday – Inland Empire 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8

Another in a long line of delicious nightmares from director David Lynch, 2006′s Inland Empire is back in cinemas having been treated to a 4K restoration. Don’t be fooled by premature reassurance offered by the appearance of Lynch mainstays Laura Dern and Harry Dean Stanton, for ambiguity and confusion reign, as an actress gradually loses grip on reality.

Thursday – Pale Blue Eyes 7.45pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – 12.50

Regular BBC 6 Music listeners will, knowingly or otherwise, have been tapping feet and nodding heads to the sound of Pale Blue Eyes for some time now. Their sound – a winning fusion of synth, guitars and vocal somehow redolent of good times lost to a hazy fog – lands tonight in Birkenhead, where the self-styled Devon cream-pop trio are supported by North London’s For Breakfast and local rabble rousers Cassette Theory.

Friday – The Choir with No Name: The Big Gig 7.30pm @ Liverpool Everyman Theatre – £15/£7

Intriguingly titled The Choir with No Name are a charity for people who are homeless and/or marginalised across the UK. Building communities through song since 2008, they are led by director and vocalist Mersey Wylie. All in the name of fundraising to help the choir continue their great work, an evening of feel-good singalong rock and pop classics awaits.

Saturday – Wirral MakeFest from 10am @ Birkenhead Central Library and The Williamson Art Gallery & Museum – FREE

Get involved at this showcase of more than 50 makers, with activities including robotics, electronics, crafts, art, coding, 3D printing, VR, woodworking, and more. Among the myriad of stuff on offer, expect workshops from the team behind Ron’s Place (above); talks from Ignite Liverpool; spoken word performance from writer Cath Holland; and demonstrations using Victorian tech from BOARC – the Bidston Observatory Research Centre.

Read: Denise Courcoux Takes A Trip To Ron’s Place

Rushmore & The French Dispatch 6.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £13/£11

Ahead of the impending release of new film Asteroid City, Picturehouse brings us what they’re calling a Wes-trospective of double bills from director Wes Anderson. Tonight’s diptych is 1998 fan favourite, Rushmore, and 2021′s well-regarded portmanteau affair The French Dispatch. An opportunity to observe the progression – or otherwise – across more than two decades of filmmaking.

Sunday – DUMPLINGVISION 11am @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE

They had us at Dumplingvision! Join Liverpool East & South East Asian Network (LESEAN) for this workshop celebrating music and food’s power to bring people together. Soundtracked by a playlist drawn from ESEA performers, share in the making, cooking and eating of dumplings together, by choosing from a number of different condiments and sauces, representing diverse food cultures.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: still: Devi (The Goddess); Pale Blue Eyes, Globe; Ron’s Place, © Denise Courcoux