The Floating Cinema, London

The Floating Cinema returns to London with a new programme entitled Extra-Ordinary. Launching on 27 July, London’s canals will play host to film for 10 weeks as the Floating Cinema presents a variety of intimate on board screenings, large scale outdoor films for bank side audiences; plus floating tours of the waterways, talks, and an education project working with local communities. Curated and directed by Hackney based artists Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie, the event seeks to shine a spotlight on the overlooked and ordinary in everyday life.

Beginning its voyage at the Open East Festival, planned by the Barbican and Create London to celebrate the one year anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony in the North area of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 27 and 28 July, the programme will include screening shorts on-board the boat across the two days.

There will also be a new series of hosted tours including Troubled Waters led by the Thames Police Museum and London Lost led by experts in human remains and London’s burial grounds from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology). Dr. Brendan Walker is developing a new tour Dramatic Stories of Industrial Dare & Do: Above, Below, and Beyond the River Lea celebrating the little-known but unique industrial history of the Lea Valley.

Under the theme of Extra-Ordinary will be several feature and short length films, including a fancy dress outdoor screening of Tim Burton’s stop frame animation Frankenweenie. The programme also includes specially commissioned work Because I am Mad by emerging director Oonagh Kearney, a film about the River Lea by Michael Smith and a series of Live Art performance tours of central London led by an artist selected with the Live Art Development Agency.

Amongst the highlights is the outdoor Horror Weekender curated by British horror director Steven Sheilon on the canal side steps in King’s Cross’ Granary Square. Running for two days, the weekend features family and adult themed activities ranging from a live séance, Zombie FX and Horror Foley Sound Effects workshops, classic Hammer Horror screenings and on board Director Q&A sessions and talks.

With a multitude of activities celebrating film, the location of London and the fantastical in the mundane, The Floating Cinema has something for everyone.

The Floating Cinema, 27 July – 30 September, in various locations across London.