Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Exhibition Continues: Haunted Paper @ Dorothy, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool – FREE

Hot on the heels of author Jeff Young’s winning of the TLS Ackerley Prize for memoir, Wild Twin, comes this exhibition of collage and notebooks made during and to inspire its writing. Very much artworks in their own right, Young sees them as: “An archive of fleeting moments captured before they fade away.” They’re every bit as poetic and evocative as that sounds.

Further Reading: Sacred & Profane: Jeff Young’s Haunted Paper

Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations, expect degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack.

Further Reading: Another Dimension – On Contemporary Drawing; Caroline Gorick: After Hours – Reviewed

Tuesday – Brigitte Jurack: Rising Darkness, Floor Mosaic Workshops 1pm @ the Victoria Gallery & Museum –  FREE

During Rising Darkness, an exhibition exploring current affairs, literature, landscape and history, artist Brigitte Jurack has been leading workshops in making a co-created mosaic. Inspired by a floor found in a Roman villa, and updated to address some of the exhibition’s themes, this is the second-to-last opportunity to have a hand in the new work.

Wednesday – Exhibition Opening: The CASS Artists in Residence & Exhibition –  FREE

Accessible on foot from West Kirby, Hilbre Island has something of the magical, even folkloric, about it. As such, it is a seductive setting for art, artists and the wider public. This new group exhibition (which runs until Sunday) highlights the work of the CASS Centre for Art, Science, Sustainability, which foregrounds collaboration and exploration around the locale.

Thursday – Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm @ 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Friday – The French Connection 8.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool — £9.35

William Friedkin’s classic, a winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor, sees Gene Hackman as NY detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle steal the show. He and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are on narcotics detail, tailing heroin smugglers Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife, Angie (Arlene Faber). Grimy realism, superb acting and a knock-out, high speed car chase combine to keep this in some ways of its time thriller feeling fresh.

Saturday – Bidston Observatory Open Days 1/2/3pm @ Bidston Observatory, Birkenhead – £5/£2

Built in 1866, in-part, to establish the ‘exact time,’ today the wonderful Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre operates as a ‘self-organising study site for research, communality and experimentation’. Whether interested in its history, as an affordable place to contemplate and conduct your own research, or both, take a look around this weekend for free.

Further Reading: Field Trip: Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre – Bringing Forth Other Worlds

Last Chance to See: REITERATIONS: The Royal Standard Studio Members Exhibition / The Royal Standard Studio Open Day –  FREE

Your last chance to see this group exhibition considering 19 years of The Royal Standard, reflecting on the practice, process – and sustainability – of such spaces. While you’re there, you can check out more of what’s going on at the artist-led studios’ open day.

Further Reading: Back in 2016, C. James Fagan considered a decade of The Royal Standard, considering the many challenges and far-reaching achievements of the artist-led studios and gallery 

Sunday – Lynchspirations: Experiment in Terror 5pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Continuing the year-long exploration and celebration of director, David Lynch (who died in January), this 1962 neo-noir directed by Blake Edwards sees Ross Martin’s sadistic crim, Garland “Red” Lynch, terrorise Lee Remick’s bank teller Kelly Sherwood. Glenn Ford’s FBI man, John “Rip” Ripley, is on the case.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: Experiment in Terror trailer; Jeff Young film still, courtesy Matt Bell; Brigitte Jurack, install photography, VGM; The French Connection trailer; Bidston Observatory, courtesy Mathilde Grandjean; Northern Lights, situated in Cains Brewery Village, Liverpool. Image courtesy Pete Carr, 2018

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations, expect degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack.

Further Reading: Another Dimension – On Contemporary Drawing; Caroline Gorick: After Hours – Reviewed

Exhibition Opening: Non-Stop Destruction 6pm @ Birch Studios, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead – FREE

Artists Ruth Dillon, Jill Eastland, Thomas Eastland, Idit Nathan & Sarah Wood come together for this group exhibition examining the continuing assault on Gaza and its people. Considering the erasure of a culture through the ‘disappearance of memories, relatives and neighbours’ – not to mention the homes which previously housed them – Non-Stop Destruction asks and responds to questions including: How can we create art in a genocide? And how can artists respond to the ongoing destruction of Palestine and the decimation of its people?’

Tuesday – Moonchild Sanelly 8pm @ District, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool – £15

She’s guested on Beyoncé and Gorillaz tracks, but the time has well and truly come for South African rapper, Moonchild Sanelly, to step out of the shadows. New album, Full Moon, released earlier this year to glowing reviews, sees her take centre-stage.

Wednesday – Exhibition Opening: Haunted Paper 5pm @ Dorothy, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool – FREE

Hot on the heels of author and all-round renaissance man, Jeff Young’s winning of the TLS Ackerley Prize for memoir, Wild Twin, comes this exhibition of his collages (pictured, top) and notebooks, which he calls ‘energy batteries’ to aid the writing process. Artworks in their own right, however, Young says: “I see them as magic spells. An archive of fleeting moments captured before they fade away. They summon up ghosts, language, images, memories, ideas, incantations, hexes, ritual alchemy.”

Thursday – Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm @ 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: REITERATIONS: The Royal Standard Studio Members Exhibition – FREE 

Group exhibition considering 19 years of the storied artist-led studio and gallery, reflecting on the practice, process – and sustainability – of such spaces.

Saturday – Exhibition Opening: INSIDE//OUT 1pm @ Bridewell Studios & Gallery – FREE

Visitors to Bridewell’s recent Drawing (Paper) Show may well have got an early preview to Gareth Kemp exhibition, INSIDE//OUT, in the form of large-scale outdoor abstract mural in the studios’ courtyard, Sculptural Forms in a Liminal Space. This afternoon sees the official unveiling, alongside an exhibition of related works by the artist.

Further Reading: Monument Exhibition Review; Light Sensitive Area Ahead – Reviewed

Dylyfu Fest: Gruff Rhys All-Dayer from 2pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £25

Gruff Rhys has always been around, it seems. From the heady 90s days of his rabble-rousing band, Super Furry Animals, to last year’s latest solo effort Sadness Sets Me Free and forthcoming Welsh language LP, Dim Probs (above), Rhys has maintained an incredible standard of output – via the odd bit of genre experimentation and tweak here and there – for more than three decades. This weekend sees him headline this Anglo-Welsh all-dayer, supported by British Birds, Pys Melyn, Gintis, Georgia Ruth, Zara Smile, and Trial Tapes.

Sunday – Last Chance to See: Amartey Golding @ FACT Liverpool – FREE  

Amartey Golding’s work addresses masculinity, nationhood, vulnerability and violence; themes, he has, for the last two years, explored with men at Fazakerley’s HMP Altcourse. Together, they created Silent Knight, a suit of armour that is the latest piece in the artist’s Chainmail series. Both reflection on the tools men use to navigate life and, created over hundreds of hours, time spent that can never be reclaimed, today is your last chance to experience the installation.

VH-YES! 1pm @ VideOdyssey, Toxteth, Liverpool – FREE with mailing list sign-up (Booking Essential) 

Promising ‘outlandish, nostalgic film fun in your local video store’, this new, free film club – whose thing, as the winning name suggests, is a wholehearted and wholesome commitment to analogue – gets underway this Sunday. With screenings kept secret, expect the programme to contain ‘nostalgic treats, B-movies and horror gems galore’. Sounds fab! Please note: this event is ticketed: sign-up to the VH-YES! mailing list essential (no walk-ups, guys).

Mike Pinnington

Image credits from top: Collage from Wild Twin by Jeff Young, 2024. Sanelisiwe Twisha – aka Moonchild Sanelly. Courtesy the artist. Gruff Rhys’ ninth album Dim Probs (No Probs), 2025. VH-YES!: secret film club, hosted by VideOdyssey 

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations, expect degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack (below).

Last Chance to See: The Drawing (Paper) Show 2025 @ The Bridewell Studios & Gallery – FREE

Drawing – so often seen merely as a preliminary step before getting down to the ‘real’ work of making art – is, quite rightly, celebrated in and of itself here. Featuring more than 50 artists from around the world, this latest iteration of the Drawing (Paper) Show, running until 31 July, both challenges our expectations of and celebrates the medium. Artists in the exhibition (including familiar names Caroline Gorick, Penny Davenport and Tomo) also appear in Drawing Paper, marking the publication’s 10th edition.

Barry Lyndon 3.40pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

“The extent to which Stanley Kubrick cared about producing quality films is made manifest in every frame of Barry Lyndon.” So said Rodney Hill in his essay on the film for Taschen’s excellent The Stanley Kubrick Archives. Something of an outlier in Kubrick’s oeuvre, Barry Lyndon (based on an 1844 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and back in cinemas to mark its 50th anniversary) follows the rise and fall of farm boy and ne’er do well, Redmond Barry, via duels, the Seven Years’ War and espionage.

The Matrix 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Tuesday – The Beaches of Agnès 8pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Autobiographical essay film from the late, great Agnès Varda (1928–2019). Looking back over her life, the then octogenarian Varda employs footage from her richly textured back catalogue to punctuate and illustrate her story. We’re lucky to be able to join her.

Further Reading: The Big Interview: Agnès Varda 

Wednesday – Exhibition Continues: Broken Grey Wires: Who Wants Flowers When They are Dead? 6pm @ Williamson Art Gallery and Museum – FREE

One of the true universals of life is the inevitability of death – yours, mine, and everyone we will ever know. And, yet, almost as universal is the difficulty with which we find thinking and talking about the subject. As with so much else, it is left to art to help make sense of it. This new group exhibition is such an attempt. Exploring grief, loss, identity and community, Who Wants Flowers When They are Dead brings together works by more than a dozen artists to ‘offer a space to reflect, connect, and begin processing experiences of loss’. Includes work by Candy Chang, Ana Mendieta, Lizz Brady and more.

Thursday – The War of the Worlds 1.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

It is 130 years since the first publication of H.G. Wells’ source material, and this 1953 adaptation was the first to bring the marauding aliens from Mars to the big screen. A questioning of the validity of ongoing British colonialism wrapped in a brilliant story, it is more than simply ‘scientific romance’ as Wells termed his output; a box office success, Byron Haskin’s cinematic outing, including some great special effects, does it justice.

Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm @ 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Friday – Last Chance to See: Dorothy X Hot Grls Watch Sports: EURO SUMMER @ Dorothy, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool – FREE

On the back of another international triumph for the Lionesses, this exhibition – a celebration and also questioning of how far the women’s game has come – feels like required viewing. Curated by Hot Grls Watch Sports founder Nali Simukulwa, it features photography and more from Caitlin Marie Sullivan, Jacqui McAssey (GIRLFANS), Ufuoma Art, and Simukulwa.

Jules et Jim 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

The famed 1962 love triangle drama, Jules et Jim, stars Henri Serre and Oskar Werner as the titular lifelong friends, each besotted with Jeanne Moreau’s Catherine. More an analysis of the complexities of love and friendship than traditional romance, and as tragic as it is effervescent, the iconic film is, perhaps not, the date movie people might imagine.

Saturday – Pulled Apart By Horses Loserpalooza IV 1pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £20

Two stages and nine bands make up Loserpalooza IV, Society of Losers’ all-dayer headlined by shouty alt-rock from Leeds’ Pulled Apart by Horses. They’re joined by, among others, local punks Crapsons, feminist alt-punk from Two Tonne Machete, and Riot Grrrl-inflected grunge from Petrichor.

Sunday – Exhibition: (M)other Collective: (M)other Wild: artists working across the island from 10am, Hilbre Island – FREE

Accessible on foot from West Kirby, Hilbre Island has something of the magical, even folkloric, about it. As such, it is a seductive setting for art, artists and the wider public. This new exhibition from (M)other Collective makes good use of this context, with a series of outdoor works exploring ‘the balance of natural life cycles endangered by modern society’.

Common Thread 1pm @ Birch Studios, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead – FREE

Workshop focused on making, mending and community building in the face of fast fashion. Held at artist-led Birch Studios, who are in the middle of an incredible show a week run during the Independents Biennial.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: The Matrix trailer; Brigitte Jurack, install photography, VGM; The Beaches of Agnès Varda trailer; BEDROCK/Liverpool Biennial; Jules et Jim trailer; Pulled Apart by Horses 

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations, expect degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack.

Tuesday – Directing Difference: RAWD Double Bill – £6

For more than a decade, RAWD (Random Acts of Wildness Disability) have supported, foregrounded and championed access to creativity for those with disabilities. This double-header of films from first-time directors, Sam Hooper and Alana Wadkin, marks their launch as a registered charity, and coincides with Disability Pride Month.

The Red Shoes 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger produced an astonishing body of work, including three of my all time favourites – A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and 1948′s The Red Shoes. A tale of love, jealousy, obsession, and more besides, the duo’s tribute to the world of dance – and reflection on ambition – capped an incredible three years for their partnership.

Wednesday – Barry Lyndon 7pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

“The extent to which Stanley Kubrick cared about producing quality films is made manifest in every frame of Barry Lyndon.” So said Rodney Hill in his essay on the film for Taschen’s excellent The Stanley Kubrick Archives. Something of an outlier in Kubrick’s oeuvre, Barry Lyndon (based on an 1844 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and back in cinemas to mark its 50th anniversary) follows the rise and fall of farm boy and ne’er do well, Redmond Barry, via duels, the Seven Years’ War and espionage.

Thursday – Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm @ 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Exhibition Opening: Broken Grey Wires: Who Wants Flowers When They are Dead? 6pm @ Williamson Art Gallery and Museum – FREE

One of the true universals of life is the inevitability of death – yours, mine, and everyone we will ever know. And, yet, almost as universal is the difficulty with which we find thinking and talking about the subject. As with so much else, it is left to art to help make sense of it. This new group exhibition is such an attempt. Exploring grief, loss, identity and community, Who Wants Flowers When They are Dead brings together works by more than a dozen artists to ‘offer a space to reflect, connect, and begin processing experiences of loss’. Includes work by Candy Chang (above), Ana Mendieta, Lizz Brady and more.

Friday – Aroma Cantonese Opera Troupe: Participatory Performance 1pm @ Pine Court, Liverpool – FREE

Part of Liverpool Biennial, artist and curator Karen Tam’s China Town-set Scent of Thunderbolts (2024), takes inspiration from Cantonese opera to provide the space for a community’s sonic memory. Manchester-based collective, Aroma Cantonese Opera Troupe, respond to Tam’s installation with this participatory performance highlighting and celebrating cultural heritage.

Saturday – Dear Othermother: Letter Writing Workshops with Amber Akaunu and Azena Baxter 1pm @ the Bluecoat, Liverpool – FREE

One of the most affecting works of Liverpool Biennial is Amber Akaunu’s touching and profound Dear Othermother, a film acknowledging and dedicated to deep bonds made beyond the family unit. This letter writing workshop inspired by the film and its themes opens a space for reflection around ‘othermothers’ in our lives.

Sunday – Walking Tour with Amayna Caceres and Andrea Ku 11am @ 20 Jordan Street, Liverpool – FREE

Join Liverpool Biennial 2025 artist Amayna Caceres and socially engaged ‘artist in disguise as a beekeeper, gardener and teacher,’ Andrea Ku, for this walk taking in Caceres’s 20 Jordan Street work, as well as green spaces nearby.

Do the Right Thing 1.15pm @ FACT Liverpool  – £9.35

Did Mookie Do the Right Thing? I first saw Spike Lee’s 1989 film at uni. It was pretty formative. As well as the movie itself, I’ve never forgotten that our lecturer remarked that it was only ever white audience members who questioned the “right thing” of the title in a film that vividly explores rising racial tensions against the backdrop of a sweltering Brooklyn neighbourhood. Lee finally won his first Oscar (Best Adapted Screenplay, BlacKkKlansman) thirty years after the movie that he’s arguably best known for; many, myself included, would question its coming so late.

Chloe Foy 7.30pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £12.50

Headlined by Chloe Foy (whose 2021 debut, Where Shall We Begin, garnered a slew of glowing reviews), this folk-filled line-up in Future Yard’s Garden screams hazy, halcyon summer evenings. Foy is joined on the night by Rachael Jean Harris, Grace Elizabeth Harvey, Maddie Lara & Catherine Bullock.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: The Red Shoes film still; Independents Biennial, The Old Fire Station; Barry Lyndon trailer; © Candy Chang, photo by Ahmed Alameri; Karen Tam 譚嘉文, ‘Scent of Thunderbolts 雷霆之息’, 2024. Liverpool Biennial 2025 at Pine Court. Photography by Stuart Whipps; Do The Right Thing trailer 

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Exhibition Continues: Drawing (Paper) Show 2025 @ The Bridewell Studios & Gallery – FREE

Drawing – so often erroneously seen as the preliminary step before getting down to making the ‘real’ art – is, quite rightly, celebrated in and of itself here. Featuring more than 50 artists from around the world, this latest iteration of the Drawing (Paper) Show  – as it frequently has in the past  – will no doubt challenge our expectations of the medium. As previously, artists in the exhibition (including familiar names Caroline Gorick, Penny Davenport and Tomo) will also appear in Drawing Paper, marking the publication’s 10th edition. See you there.

Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations, expect degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack. Today sees the 6pm private view of Breadcrumbs at Birch Studios & Gallery (Hamilton Square, Birkenhead), a group exhibition exploring folkloric themes.

LAAF: Archiving Nostalgia 7pm @ FACT Liverpool – £5/£8

This evening of screenings as part of Liverpool Arab Arts Fest (LAAF) includes short- and longform films. Lebanese director Evelyne Hlais’, He Looked At Me, creatively responds to a documentary shot in the aftermath of a massacre. Taqwa Bint Ali x NOWNESS’ 2025 short, Memories of a Wedding, frames marriage ceremonies as cultural event. And Amine Hattou’s feature length, Janitou, reflects on the success of a 1980s Bollywood romance film in Algeria, to interrogate what love means in today’s Algerian society’.

Read our LAAF 2025 preview

Videodrome 8pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

A sexy sci-fi cult classic from David Cronenberg (The Fly, History of Violence, Naked Lunch), prepare to be grossed out as sleazy TV exec Max Renn (James Woods) commissions a new type of programme: Videodrome. As the violence, torture and hallucinations get ever more extreme, the signal’s source is finally revealed…

Further reading from our Archive: Beyond Uncanny Valley – AI and the Movies

Tuesday – Allie X 7pm @ Arts Club Theatre, Liverpool – £22.50

Dark electro avant-pop from singer, songwriter and visual artist, Alexandra Ashley Hughes – AKA Allie X. With special guests Maiah Manser, and support from MARiMARi.

Wednesday – LAAF Artist Talk: Mohamed Gohar 4pm @ Yamama Café & Bar, 31-32 Parliament St, Liverpool – FREE (booking required)

Architect, artist, and urban heritage strategist, Mohamed Gohar’s The Alexandrian visual arts project ruminates on the evolution of Egypt’s second largest city – a city facing, says Gohar, ‘long-impacting economic, demographic and social challenges.’ Hear more from the artist at this afternoon’s informal talk.

LAAF: Palestine Minus One 7pm @ the Bluecoat – £5

An evening of readings and, no doubt, discussion, sparked by forthcoming Comma Press collection, Palestine Minus One. The book contains short, genre-inflected stories, that collectively look back from the Nakba of 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. Storytelling as rallying call, the evening features writers Mazen Maarouf, and Anwar Hamed, along with editor, Basma Ghalayini.

Thursday – Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm @ 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Pavements 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £14.85

So-called as it presents the Pavement we think we know alongside one played by a cast of actors (including Stranger Things’ Joe Keery), director Alex Ross Perry’s film, Pavements, has its cake and eats it in this meta, atypical look at the band of their generation.

Read Our Review   

Friday – LAAF: A Grain of Sand 7.30pm @ Unity Theatre – £15

Commissioned by London Palestine Film Festival, this one-woman show (adapted from Leila Boukarim and Asaf Luzon’s A Million Kites: Testimonies and Poems from the Children of Gaza) employs Palestinian folklore to convey the horrors of war through the eyes of Renad, a young Gazan girl in search of her family.

Stop Making Sense 8.40pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

The greatest concert film of all time? Stop Making Sense is certainly up there. Capturing Talking Heads at the peak of their powers, it overflows with energy, innovation and – of course – an incredible repertoire of songs. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it’s memorable not least for David Byrne’s stage presence (the showmanship, the suits, the moves!).

Saturday – BOOTFEST: Cassia from 2pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £18

A day of music for less than 20 quid, Macclesfield indie band Cassia top a jam-packed BOOTFEST bill in support of new long-player, everyone, outside. Support comes from Permanent (Joy), Tilly Louise, Bayboards, Vincent’s Last Summer, Honey Motel, Hannah Mazey, Bite, Room Two and Cornerstone.

LAAF: Akram Abdulfattah 8pm @ the Philharmonic Music Room, Liverpool – £15

Palestinian-American violinist, composer and producer, Akram Abdulfattah, fuses jazz with middle eastern and Indian music traditions.

Sunday – LAAF Family Day 12pm @ Sefton Park Palm House – FREE 

Marking the end of another LAAF, this year’s Family Day includes music from the likes of the Yemeni Al Awahdal Band, and The Egyptian Jazz Projekt, calligraphy workshops, Levantine and Palestinian folk tales, and, of course, a range of Arabic cuisine.

Black Narcissus 1.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

The filmmaking partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger produced an astonishingly fruitful body of work. It includes three of my all time favourite films – A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and 1948′s The Red Shoes. The middle of that trio – in a large aspect an uncritical, darkly colonial view of spreading ‘our’ religion to the world – Black Narcissus is also a study in losing one’s mind in the remote surrounds of a Himalayan convent. Starring Deborah Kerr and David Farrar, alongside them, the real star turn is Kathleen Byron’s incredible performance as psychologically tormented Sister Ruth.

Mike Pinnington 

Images/media, from top: Videodrome still; Kara Chin, ‘Mapping the Wasteland – Can and Bottle’, Liverpool Biennial 2025 on Berry Street. Photography by Rob Battersby; Archiving Nostalgia; Mohamed Gohar, detail, from The Alexandrian series; Pavements film artwork; A Grain of Sand promo artwork; Akram Abdulfattah Live in London 

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Mars Express 5.40pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.84

Ostensibly the tale of a notorious hacker and a missing person on 23rd century Mars, with a plot exploring, among other things, brain farms, Jérémie Périn’s sci-fi noir is frequently described as France’s answer to Ghost in the Shell.

Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley and St. Helens, it boasts 22 new commissions of its 64 exhibiting artists. From degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack, there’s much to look forward to from this year’s showcase of grassroots art and artists. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Guitar Wolf 7.30pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £19.60

Elemental rock ‘n’ roll from Japanese icons of the genre. See: Fujiyama Attack!

Tuesday – Hearts of Darkness 5.40 (and Wednesday at 4.45) @ FACT Liverpool– £9.35

Documentary, Hearts of Darkness, chronicles director Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now on- and off-set travails.

Wednesday – Artist Tour: Amartey Golding 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE

Amartey Golding’s work addresses masculinity, nationhood, vulnerability and violence; themes, he has, for the last two years, explored with men at Fazakerley’s HMP Altcourse. Together, they created Silent Knight, a suit of armour that is the latest piece in the artist’s Chainmail series. Both reflection on the tools men use to navigate life and, created over hundreds of hours, time spent that can never be reclaimed, join Golding today for a guided tour.

Pavements 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £14.85

So-called as it presents the Pavement we think we know alongside one played by a cast of actors (including Stranger Things’ Joe Keery), director Alex Ross Perry’s film, Pavements, has its cake and eats it in this meta, atypical look at the band of their generation.

Read Our Review   

Thursday – Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm @ 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Exhibition Opening: Drawing (Paper) Show 2025 5.30pm @ The Bridewell Studios & Gallery – FREE

Drawing – so often erroneously seen as the preliminary step before getting down to making the ‘real’ art – is, quite rightly, celebrated in and of itself here. Featuring more than 50 artists from around the world, this latest iteration of the Drawing (Paper) Show  – as it frequently has in the past  – will no doubt challenge our expectations of the medium. As previously, artists in the exhibition (including familiar names Caroline Gorick, Penny Davenport and Tomo) will also appear in Drawing Paper, marking the publication’s 10th edition. See you there.

Friday – Opening: LAAF @ Various Venues – £Various

The crucial and always brilliantly programmed Liverpool Arab Arts Fest returns this week, running until 20 July. Including performance, art, music, community events, literature and workshops, this year’s iteration of the UK’s longest-running annual Arab arts and culture festival addresses the thorny topic of nostalgia.

Funny Games 8.45pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Michael Haneke’s 1997 home invasion horror to rule them all, this genuinely unsettling look at what happens when social mores are out of whack with expectations more than retains the power to shock.

Saturday – Limbs of the Lunar Disc: Break the Clocks 1pm @ World Museum, Liverpool – FREE

Performance lecture from LAAF artist, Sarah al Sarraj, whose new, time-collapsing work, Limbs of the Lunar Disc: Isthmus Ancient River, can be seen at the museum until 20 July.

Sunday – Videodrome 2.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

A sexy sci-fi cult classic from David Cronenberg (The Fly, History of Violence, Naked Lunch), prepare to be grossed out as sleazy TV exec Max Renn (played with glee by James Woods) commissions a new type of programme: Videodrome. As the violence, torture and hallucinations get more and more extreme, the signal’s source is finally revealed…

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: Mars Express trailer; Amber Akaunu, Still from ‘Dear Othermother’, 2024. Courtesy of the Artist; Guitar Wolf/Fujiyama Attack; Amartey Golding, Chainmail 4: Silent Knight (2025). Installation view at FACT Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby; Drawing (Paper) Show (drawing by M. Lohrum; Funny Games trailer

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Exhibitions Continue: @ The Atkinson, Southport – FREE

A trio of shows currently grace Southport’s Atkinson. The Magic of Middle-earth, brings together all manner of creative responses to Tolkien’s opus, including memorabilia, paintings, sculptures, and Lego. Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s I Love You Southport finds the Sefton-born artist showcasing new works; and the gallery’s collection marks its 150th anniversary with a new display bringing together works from the 17th century to the present day. Something for everyone.

From the Archive: Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Merseyside Burman Empire

Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts; Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK Review

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the well-established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as ever. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley and St. Helens, it boasts 22 new commissions of its 64 exhibiting artists. From degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack, there’s much to look forward to from this year’s showcase of grassroots art and artists. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Tuesday – Exhibition Continues: Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream? @ Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno – FREE

This major exhibition, commissioned by The National Gallery, takes as its inspiration the hiding of works of art for safekeeping during the Second World War in a disused Snowdonia slate mine. Featuring works and co-curated by Turner Prize-winning artist, Jeremy Deller, Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream? also includes new commissions by early career Welsh artists, Esyllt Angharad Lewis, Gweni Llwyd, Lewis Prosser, Llyr Evans and Sadia Pineda Hameed.

News From Home 5.50pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

When Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was voted Sight & Sound magazine’s greatest film in its 2022 poll, it marked a major shake-up for not just the poll, but also those names synonymous with the award. A welcome turn of events, it opens the door to programming that brings audiences into contact with a, perhaps, less familiar name. Such is the case with this week’s screening of News From Home, Akerman’s avant-garde documentary, which finds the director ‘exiled’ in New York, reading letters sent to her from her mum back in Europe.

Wednesday – Shallow Grave 8pm (and 5.45pm Thursday) @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

A trio of flatmates (baby Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox and Christopher Eccleston) come into an unexpected windfall in director Danny Boyle’s 1994 debut Shallow Grave – and come face to face with the consequences of greed and betrayal.

Thursday – Opening: Manchester International Festival 2025: Dream Differently  @ Aviva Studios/Venues across the city – £Various

Framed this year as a ‘leap into the unknown’, 2025′s MIF is, nevertheless, the usual reliable mix of family friendly and aficionado-centred visual art, performance, spectacle, music and more. Everyone will be talking about Eric Cantona, whose artistic collaboration with Ryan Gander features in the huge group exhibition, Football City, Art United. Our highlights include contemporary ballet reimagining Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man (starring John Grant and Ed Watson); and the first international solo exhibition of indigenous northern Peruvian artist and activist, Santiago Yahuarcani, whose narrative paintings are “rooted in the legacy of my ancestors, those who saw the universe not as something to conquer, but to revere.”

Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Moolakii Club: Silent Film Soundtracks 7pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £7

Obscure, avant-garde early silent and experimental film set to contemporary electronica. A compelling proposition.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: Hollywood, New York, Colwyn Bay @ Oriel Colwyn, Colwyn Bay – FREE

Championing photography in Wales since 2012, Oriel Colwyn’s latest opening, from sometime Tatler photographer Dafydd Jones, coincides with American Independence Day. Working in the US with the likes of Vanity Fair, Jones captured the best – and worst –  of US society, from Hollywood to Wall Street and beyond. Catch Jones in conversation at the gallery on Saturday @ 1pm.

More photography from the Big Apple

Saturday – Apocalypse Now: Final Cut 12.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Francis Ford Coppola’s reimagining of Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, now has a Final Cut – restored from the original negative by the man himself. Coppola’s preferred version of his Vietnam War epic, this edit pushes its run-time over the three-hour mark and can be considered definitive. Want to make a day of it? Documentary Hearts of Darkness, chronicling Coppola’s on-set travails, follows at 4.30pm.

Sunday – The Piano Teacher 4.15pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Even if you’re somewhat familiar with the challenging, mercurial oeuvre of Austrian director, Michael Haneke, his 2001 film, The Piano Teacher, could well catch you unawares. Adapted from Elfriede Jelinek’s 1983 psychosexual novel of the same name, it stars Isabelle Huppert as the repressed, hemmed in music professor of the title. A brutal, fascinating, and ultimately destructive character study of a woman pushing for sexual agency.

Mike Pinnington/Laura Robertson

Images from top: Football City, Art United. MIF25. Matt Fox, The Magic Of Middle-earth 2025, The Atkinson, photo by Dave Jones. Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream? at Mostyn Gallery. Ewan McGregor, in director Danny Boyle’s 1994 debut Shallow Grave (still). Dachshunds fighting over doggy canapés. Iris Love (holding Just Desserts) and Brooke Astor (holding Dolly Astor) at a dachshund party, Barbetta restaurant. Manhattan, 12 February 1990: Dafydd Jones, Hollywood, New York, Colwyn Bay exhibition, Oriel Colwyn 2025

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial continues across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the just-as-well established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as it ever has done. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley and St. Helens, it boasts 22 new commissions of its 64 exhibiting artists. From degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack, there’s much to look forward to from this year’s showcase of grassroots art and artists. Check individual venues for opening days/times.

Tuesday – Stitching Time: The beginning of the work 2pm @ Tate Liverpool + RIBA North – FREE

Programmed as RIBA’s response to Liverpool Biennial 2025 theme, BEDROCK, Where the Work Begins provides the departure point for thinking around the connections between art and architecture, by tracing the evolution of the artist’s studio. There, you will find archival photography of studios ranging from the likes of modernists Gluck, and Vanessa Bell, to contemporary artist, Antony Gormley (above). With the exhibition as setting and inspiration, Stitching Time: The beginning of the work, proposes the space as communal studio for sewing, creativity and chat.

The Handmaiden 7.40pm (and 4.40pm, Wednesday) @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Adapted from Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, The Handmaiden is set in a 1930s Korea still under Japanese colonial rule. In the simplest terms, it charts a conman’s plot to defraud an heiress. But there is very little that is simple about this psychological, erotically charged thriller. Full of duplicity and heavy with intrigue, it is a delicious watch and, for many, the high water mark so far for its director, Park Chan-wook.

Further Reading: Park Chan-Wook – Six of the Best

Wednesday –  Last Chance to See: Caroline Gorick: After Hours 6pm @ The Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool – FREE

At the intersection of abstraction and figuration, artist Caroline Gorick is inspired, she says, by “subjects found in my camera roll.” Part of the Independents Biennial, the exhibition – with themes including fear, memory, and fragility – is open 12-5pm Monday to Wednesday.

Thursday – Liverpool Biennial 2025: Drop-in Weekly Tea and Talk Tours 2pm 20 Jordan Street – FREE

This does what it says on the tin tour offers a way to ease yourself in to the Biennial if all those sites, artists and the theme itself prove a bit overwhelming – it can be a lot to take in. If our experience of this edition’s Biennial volunteers is anything to go by, you’ll be in safe, informative, hands.

Friday – Michael Robert Murphy 7.30pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £11.20

Michael Robert Murphy (ex Wicked Whispers) celebrates the launch of new record, Chaos Magick. Self-described as “A Scouse lo-fi autobiographical psychedelic odyssey,” tonight’s performance features an array of local talent, including Edgar Jones, Mark Rice (The Heavy North), Matthew Gray and Gary Moonbirds, as well as a guest performance from By The Sea’s Liam Power.

Saturday – Exhibition Openings @ The Atkinson, Southport – FREE

A trio of new shows grace Southport’s Atkinson this weekend. The Magic of Middle-earth, brings together all manner of creative responses to Tolkien’s opus, including memorabilia, paintings, sculptures, and Lego. Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s I Love You Southport finds the Sefton-born artist showcasing new works; and the gallery’s collection marks its 150th anniversary with a new display bringing together works from the 17th century to the present day. Something for everyone.

From the Archive: Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Merseyside Burman Empire

Exhibition Opening: Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream? @ Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno – FREE

This major new exhibition, commissioned by The National Gallery, takes as its inspiration the hiding of works of art for safekeeping during the Second World War in a disused Snowdonia slate mine. Featuring works and co-curated by Turner Prize-winning artist, Jeremy Deller, Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream? also includes new commissions by early career Welsh artists, Esyllt Angharad Lewis, Gweni Llwyd, Lewis Prosser, Llyr Evans and Sadia Pineda Hameed. Led by Welsh language theatre company, Frân Wen, this weekend’s opening events include a procession through the streets of Llandudno.

An Inquest Concerning Teeth: Sound and Cockles with Sara Wolff 1pm @ Waterloo Sunset Café, Liverpool – FREE

Composer, songwriter and sound artist, Sara Wolff leads this workshop-cum-coastal walk along Crosby Beach. With a focus on attentive listening, note-taking and sketching, this Independents Biennial bit of programming sounds like just the trick to blow away the cobwebs.

Sunday – Wings of Desire 1.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

A pair of angels – Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) – invisibly observe, comfort and surreptitiously suggest the presence of something ‘more’ to us, Earth’s mere mortals, in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. The 1987 film, an almost instant classic, gives us cause to appreciate lives lived – the big, medium and small serendipities, miracles and unknowns that inject colour, making them what they are. It was, unwisely, remade a little over a decade later (starring Nic Cage and Meg Ryan). Take this opportunity to see the original as intended, on the big screen.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: Carreg Ateb: Vision or Dream?; Antony Gormley’s workshop and studio, Camberwell, London © RIBA Collections. Martin Charles 1989; Handmaiden still; Michael Robert Murphy; © Chila Kumari Singh Burman; Wings of Desire trailer

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Monday – Continuing: Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK – FREE

The 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial eases into its first full week across the city and the public realm. There is the usual rich mix of institutional and ‘found’ spaces, with the city-wide arts festival a celebration of discovery as much as anything else. This iteration’s subtitle, BEDROCK, suggests nothing if not a solid foundation from which to build. Curator Marie-Anne McQuay and an array of international artists’ excavations of and responses to the city await. Check individual venues for opening times.

Further Reading: My Life in the Biennial with Ghosts

Continuing: Independents Biennial 2025 – FREE

Running in parallel to BEDROCK is the just-as-well established Independents Biennial which, this year, feels as ambitious as it ever has done. Taking place in an astonishing 120 locations across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley and St. Helens, it boasts 22 new commissions of its 64 exhibiting artists. From degree show first-timers to the likes of Rebecca Chesney, Johnny Vegas, and Brigitte Jurack, there’s much to look forward to from this year’s showcase of grassroots art and artists. Check individual venues for opening times.

Tuesday – Last Chance to See: Fractured Familiar @ 50MV, Crosby, Liverpool – FREE

Bringing together paintings and sculpture by Roxy Topia & Paddy Gould, Jeffrey Knopf, Jamie Kirk and Luke Skiffington, Fractured Familiar includes: 1970s cgi, medical models, signage, photography and 3D scans. Introducing glitches and uncertainty into such ordinarily typical territory, ‘truth and fiction,’ goes the exhibition blurb, ‘become blurred, forgotten and then reimagined’.

Wednesday – Sink Presents: Ben Vince 7pm @ Lost Art, Liverpool – £10 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Saxophonist, producer and collaborator with, among others, Mica Levi, Ben Vince rocks up in the Baltic Triangle’s Lost Art, showcasing new works ahead of the release of his latest record. In a packed midweek line-up, Vince is supported by Grey Streak & ELIJAH RIGHT?, Ria Bagley, and Kepla.

Bound 8.10pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

Before The Matrix, siblings Lana and Lilly Wachowski made their directorial debut with this hard-bitten, sexy, 90s updating of the film noir. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon star as Violet and Corky, who simmer as they plot the former’s escape from her mobster boyfriend, and find love amid a scheme to relieve the mafia of $2million.

Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Caroline Gorick: After Hours 6pm @ The Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool – FREE

At the intersection of abstraction and figuration, artist Caroline Gorick (above) presents new paintings inspired, she says, by “subjects found in my camera roll.” Part of the Independents Biennial, the exhibition – with themes including fear, memory, and fragility – runs until 18 June.

Friday – Semay Wu & Branton/Kelly 7.30pm @ Metal Liverpool, Edge Hill Station – £7/£5

An evening of atmospheric, innovative composition awaits at Edge Hill train station-based Metal Liverpool this Friday. With electroacoustic composer, improviser and cellist Semay Wu joined by experimentalist duo Nick Branton (reeds) and David Kelly (drums), expect the unexpected.

Friday the 13th 8pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

An absolute no-brainer of programming, check in with Jason et al at Crystal Lake for a stone-cold genre classic, this Friday the 13th…

Saturday – The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Editions 11am @ FACT Liverpool – £25.85

With a combined running time of 727 minutes, this special screening of Peter Jackson’s TLotR trilogy (the extended versions, no less) practically approaches a durational art happening in its scope. Marking the 20th anniversary of The Return of the King, make a day of it with Mr. Frodo, Gandalf and pals.

From the Archive: Nik Glover takes an in-depth look at on-screen fantasy

Liverpool Biennial Guided Tour – FREE

Don’t know where to start with this year’s Biennial? Each week, guided tours will take place from 2pm. Check the Biennial website for details.

Sunday – The Night of the Hunter 4.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.84

Writing about the film in 2014, George Jepson called Charles Laughton’s 1955 film The Night of the Hunter (starring Robert Mitchum as so-called preacher Harry Powell) “a twisted amalgam of Southern Gothic, a terrifying fairy-tale and vaudevillian slapstick comedy.” Adapted from a 1953 novel of the same name, it follows Mitchum’s psychopathically cruel ex-convict weedling his way into the unfortunate lives of a former cellmate’s family, in the name of hidden loot.

Further reading: Adam Scovell on The Night of the Hunter

Orchestra Baobab 7.30pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall – £31/£26

I had one of those sit up and take notice of what’s on the radio moments recently, when Cerys Matthews played Senegalese dance troupe, Orchestra Baobab, on her 6music show (the song that grabbed my attention was Ray M’bele). Formed in the 1970s, they’re currently touring their winning blend of Afro-Cuban, pop and Griot (a West African oral tradition of music and storytelling) in venues across Europe. This Liverpool date is programmed in partnership with festival supremos, Africa Oyé.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: The Night of the Hunter still; Independents Biennial, The Old Fire Station; Ben Vince, Don’t Give Your Life; Cast, 2025, by Caroline Gorick: Friday the 13th trailer; Orchestra Baobab poster, Toucan Tango

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…

Tuesday – The Third Man 1.30pm (and 5pm Wednesday) @ FACT Liverpool £9.35

Sitting in joint 63rd in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll, few would question The Third Man’s inclusion; in fact, I was surprised it wasn’t higher. Written by Graham Greene, Carol Reed’s noirish thriller starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton playing cat and mouse in a crumbling post-war Vienna remains peak cinema; great, then, that it is back on the big screen. I can practically hear the zither of Harry Lime’s theme now…

Wednesday – Exhibition Continues: Amartey Golding @ FACT Liverpool – FREE

Artist Amartey Golding’s work addresses themes of masculinity, nationhood, vulnerability and violence; themes he has, for the last two years, explored with men at Fazakerley’s HMP Altcourse. Together, they have created Silent Knight, a suit of armour that is the latest piece in Golding’s Chainmail series. It is both reflection on the tools men use to navigate life and, created over hundreds of hours, time spent that can never be reclaimed. Accompanied by a soundtrack and with pew-like seating, Silent Knight is both installation and space for contemplation.

Alan Sparhawk 7pm @ Arts Club, Liverpool – £26.72

2024 saw the release of Alan Sparhawk’s first new material since the death in 2022 of his fellow co-founder of Low, and wife, Mimi Parker. Loss, of course, looms large on White Roses, My God, but also experimentation (Sparhawk made the record having bought and played around with a synth and voice pitch changer). “I found myself secretly stabbing around at possibilities with the unfamiliar tools, improvising, turning knobs until something would hit and a song would form,” he’s said, concluding: “I can see now that it must have been what needed to come out of me.”

Thursday – The Resilience of Refaat: Honouring a Voice of Gaza 7pm @ The Black-E, Liverpool – £6.13/£11.55

Israeli imposed reporting restrictions have meant that rarely are Palestinian casualties properly identified in the news. Among the now more than 54,000 who have lost their lives, however, one name cut through the fog of the media clampdown: that of writer, editor, professor and poet, Refaat Alareer. His final poem, If I Must Die, has by now been read by millions. This event, with Gaza-based writer, translator, and editor of If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose, Yousef Aljamal; writer, translator, and fellow lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza, Ahmed Nehad; and translator and editor of Palestine +100 and Palestine -1, Basma Ghalayini, remembers and reflects on his legacy.

Interview with the Vampire 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £9.35

The last great elegant vampire about town to come out of Hollywood, Tom Cruise is perfect as the cruelly seductive Lestat. His performance even satisfied author of the source material, Anne Rice, who had initially baulked at the prospect of seeing Cruise in the role. He is joined (in leaden manner) by Brad Pitt as Louis – reluctant to embrace all vampirism requires – and a twelve-year-old Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, completing a strange family unit. A visual feast, Interview with the Vampire delivers, remarks doyen of the undead, Christopher Frayling, “a surprising amount of transgression”.

Friday – Dr. John Cooper Clarke 7.30pm @ Liverpool Everyman Theatre – £16

The Bard of Salford once again graces Liverpool with his socio-political punk poetry. Ground breaking, sardonic, and comfortably in the realms of poetry’s equivalent of rock star royalty.

Saturday – Last Chance to See: Ding Yi: Between Prediction and Retrospection; Vanessa da Silva: Roda Viva @ Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno – FREE

Llandudno’s Mostyn Gallery boasts a rich and varied programme to rival many a bigger, louder, institution. Their latest exhibitions, which close this weekend, continue that pattern. Brazilian artist, Vanessa da Silva, signs off this afternoon with a live performance. Read our reviews of Ding Yi: Between Prediction and Retrospection, and da Silva’s Roda Viva.

Last Chance to See: JMW Turner & his contemporaries @ Victoria Gallery & Museum – FREE

2025 has so far been a big year for fans of Turner. Marking the 250th anniversary of the painter’s birth, the milestone is being appropriately commemorated with multiple celebratory exhibitions. It allows for a variety of different takes and perspectives on Turner – his art, influences and legacy. This soon-to-close show at VGM looks at his work in the context of peers, including Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman, David Cox Snr, Samuel Prout and others.

Wax + Gears ft. Stealing Sheep 2-11pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £16.80

An off-grid, one-day festival in which power is provided by dynamo-fitted bikes, Wax + Gears has its sights set firmly on sustainable practice in the music industry. Liverpool darlings Stealing Sheep headline, joined by the unconventional pop of Ruby Duff, alt rock from Clockwork Gibbons and more.

Exhibition Opening: Fractured Familiar 5pm @ 50MV, Crosby, Liverpool – FREE

Bringing together paintings and sculpture by Roxy Topia & Paddy Gould, Jeffrey Knopf, Jamie Kirk and Luke Skiffington, Fractured Familiar includes: 1970s cgi, medical models, signage, photography and 3D scans. Introducing glitches and uncertainty into such ordinarily typical territory, ‘truth and fiction,’ goes the exhibition blurb, ‘become blurred, forgotten and then reimagined’.

Camera Obscura 7pm @ Arts Club Liverpool – £25

Glaswegian indie-pop stars Camera Obscura return following an extended hiatus in the wake of the 2015 death of band member, Carey Lander. Their return, alongside last year’s critically acclaimed Look to the East, Look to the West, is cause for celebration.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media, from top: The Third Man trailer; Amartey Golding, Chainmail 4: Silent Knight (2025). Installation view at FACT Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby; Interview with the Vampire trailer;  Vanessa da Silva: Roda Viva, Mostyn Gallery installation © Rob Battersby; Fractured Familiar exhibition ident