Culture Diary w/c 27-08-2024
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Tuesday – Gloria 2.30pm (and, again, 2pm Thursday) @ FACT Liverpool – £8
In her obituary for actor Gina Rowlands, who died earlier this month aged 94, the BFI’s Molly Haskell wrote that, while often compared to “this or that star of Hollywood’s golden age” it was ”her jagged rhythms, her refusal to fit into any known category that marked her extraordinary and often discomfiting career.” Regularly directed by her husband John Cassavetes, you can catch a glimpse of her in Gloria this week, for which she was nominated for an Oscar in her role as a mobster’s girlfriend trying to do the right thing by a boy whose family has been slain by the mafia.
Wednesday – Emily Nenni 7.30pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £12
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Emily Nenni delivers her soulful new country stylings to the left bank of the Mersey tonight, in support of latest LP, Drive and Cry (below).
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Daniel Halsall/Josie Jenkins 6pm @ the Bridewell Studios & Gallery – FREE
It’s been a while since our last opportunity to catch a new show at what is, for our money, currently Liverpool’s most vibrant independent exhibiting gallery. Tonight sees painters Daniel Halsall and Josie Jenkins‘ works grace the walls (until 3 September).
Friday – Studio/Lab co-working open day @ FACT Liverpool – FREE
Desk-hopping around various cafes and bars proving tiresome and expensive? Can you no longer differentiate your home from your place of work? In that case, you could do far worse than give today’s Studio/Lab open day at FACT Liverpool a go, where you can meet other creatives and take advantage of the free-flowing tea and coffee, gratis.
Yo La Tengo 7pm @ Content Liverpool – £26
The evergreen Yo La Tengo (who have been around for longer than many of you have been alive!)) return to Liverpool tonight for the first time in more than a decade. That they continue to make innovative and richly varied music way after your average band exceeds expiry is a point verging on the miraculous; but make it they do. Most recent album, 2023′s This Stupid World (above), deservedly garnered a multitude of raves.
Saturday – National Cinema Day at participating cinemas
Been hanging on until payday to treat yourself to a trip to the cinema? We have great news! Today marks national cinema day, in which hundreds of participating cinemas across the country celebrate the seventh art by offering tickets for just £4. In our neck of the woods that means, among others, Picturehouse @ FACT, the Odeon, The Light Cinema, New Brighton, Chester’s Storyhouse, Plaza Waterloo and many more. Check if your local cinema is partaking.
Sunday – Exhibition Closing: LOOK Photo Biennial 2024: Beyond Sight @ Open Eye Gallery – FREE
Building on LOOK Climate Lab, here, three separate projects come together for LOOK Photo Biennial. Mattia Balsamini’s Protege Noctum trains its lens on the ‘disappearance of the night’, documenting the effects of artificial light on the night sky; Erosion, by Stephanie Wynne, explores the structural waste of war via the rubble of WW2 strewn along Merseyside’s shoreline; Melanie King’s other-worldly Precious Metals, meanwhile, considers the cosmic genesis, harmful extraction and use of silver and palladium in photography. “The artists,” says Open Eye curator Max Gorbatskyi, “use exquisite form and poetic subjects to firmly state the urgency of sustainable practices, whether in art or urban planning.”
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 1.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
The 90s was a weird time for the Batman. Following Tim Burton’s on the money duo of efforts (in 1989 and 1992), and before Christopher Nolan got his hands on the franchise, the caped crusader’s on-screen reputation was very much in flux. For many, myself included, the best way to follow the Dark Knight during this period was via Batman: The Animated Series (92-95), which earned its own feature-length outing in 93. It sees Bruce Wayne donning his cowl to face a mysterious vigilante, systematically working their way through Gotham’s crime bosses. Initially a direct-to-video release, you can savour it on the big screen today.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Gloria (1980) film trailer; Emily Nenni; Yo La Tengo; Mattia Balsamini
