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Friday 10th May 2019
Bicycle Thieves
Bring something to sit on and whatever you need to stay warm and dry
Intimately depicting the deprivations of post-war Italy while simultaneously transcending them with a universal story of hope, despair and raw human emotion, Bicycle Thieves graces this year’s festival as a timeless classic. This is a film about a man who needs a job.
Unemployed, like many in the post-World War II Val Melaina neighbourhood of Rome, Antonio Ricci gets a lucky break and is offered a prized municipal job cycling around the city putting up advertising posters. Having already sold his bicycle to support his wife Maria and his young son, Bruno, they are forced to pawn the family’s bed linen so that he can take the job. For a brief moment the prospect of a stable and less impoverished future for their family glimmers, but then disaster strikes and Ricci’s bicycle is stolen, leaving him to comb desperately the dilapidated backstreets and darkened Roman piazzas with Bruno in search of justice.
A masterpiece of Italian neo-realist cinema, Bicycle Thieves is widely held up by critics as one of the greatest films of all time for its uncompromising portrayal of poverty and the way it strips people of their dignity. The film was praised for its exclusive use of non-professional actors, startling in comparison to the gloss of Hollywood, and for the window it provides into ordinary Italian life at the mid-point of the century. As a father/son tale, it has plenty to captivate younger viewers, but its emotional complexity and the underlying socio-economic commentary it provides will leave all with a new appreciation of the fragility of the human condition.
See the trailer here!
As part of this year’s Herne Hill Free Film Festival we are excited to be partnering with the Maudsley Charity, to help them promote positive change in the world of mental health and to make a real difference to the treatment of mental health in our area. We will be collecting donations at each of our screenings to support their local activities, so if you can, any money that you can spare would be greatly appreciated to help this wonderful charity continue the admirable work they do.
Film Quiz
Wilding with Q&A
8:45PM
A Complete Unknown
8:00PM
48 Hour Film Challenge
12:00PM
Hundreds of Beavers
8:30PM
Getting It back: The Story of Cymande + Q&A
8:00PM
Shaun of the Dead
8:45PM
Short Film Night + Filmmakers’ Intros
8:00PM
We Live in Time
8:00PM
The Outrun
8:00PM
People’s Film Choice: Stand by me or Galaxy Quest or Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind
8:45PM
The Wild Robot
4:00PM
My Kind Of Black: A Night of Short Films by Young Black Londoners + Q&A
8:00PM
Love Lies Bleeding
8:00PM
Cycling Shorts
8:00PM
Phantom of the Open
8:45PM
Film Quiz
Off the Cuff Bar – Herne Hill
We are very excited to launch this year’s Free Film Festival with a film-themed pub quiz at the brilliant Off The Cuff. Hosted by…
Wilding with Q&A
Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses
Wilding documents the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old Knepp Estate. They battle entrenched…
A Complete Unknown
Carnegie Library Hub
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48 Hour Film Challenge
Prince Regent Pub
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Hundreds of Beavers
Brockwell Hall
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Getting It back: The Story of Cymande + Q&A
Off the Cuff Bar – Herne Hill
Listening to 6 Music one day, it was surprising to learn that a band named Cymande, formed just down the road in Brixton in the…
Shaun of the Dead
Brockwell Lido – Herne Hill
Shaun of the Dead has, over the last 21 years, become a classic zombie comedy, with pints, Queen, blink-and-you’ll-miss-em cameos, memorable lines and a weaponised…
Short Film Night + Filmmakers’ Intros
Prince Regent Pub
We think this will be our 11th Short Film Night at the Herne Hill Free Film Festival (sorry for not being entirely sure, it’s…
We Live in Time
Herne Hill Baptist Church
We Live in Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, explores how the fleeting moments of our lives weave together to shape our identities and…
The Outrun
Coldharbour Blue
The Outrun is a compelling drama that follows Rona, portrayed by Saoirse Ronan, as she returns to Scotland’s Orkney Islands after battling alcoholism in…
People’s Film Choice: Stand by me or Galaxy Quest or Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind
Herne Hill Velodrome
With so many great films to choose from, we just couldn’t decide, and so it’s over to you! Please help us select this year’s outdoor…
The Wild Robot
Herne Hill Station Hall
The Wild Robot is a film for all the family that is as thoughtful as it is entertaining. The story follows Roz, an intelligent…
My Kind Of Black: A Night of Short Films by Young Black Londoners + Q&A
198 Contemporary Arts and Learning
Join us at one of our new screening venues, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning gallery for an evening of short films showcasing the voices…
Love Lies Bleeding
Bird House Brewery
Love Lies Bleeding is a neon-soaked, adrenaline-fueled thriller that dives headfirst into passion, crime, and obsession. When reclusive gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) falls…
Cycling Shorts
Herne Hill Velodrome
Now in its third year, the ever popular Cycling Shorts returns to the historic Herne Hill Velodrome. (That’s short films about cycling of course!) Expect…
Phantom of the Open
Edward Alleyn Club
Our local hero Mark Rylance stars in this amiably daft film The Phantom of the Open about real-life golfing eccentric Maurice Flitcroft, who gatecrashed…
