Event type: Film

Helen Anna Flanagan ‘Burnt Toast’ & Gavin Gayagoy ‘Doomscroll_1’

This exhibition brings together two artists exploring the complexities of human existence in the modern world. Through their artworks, Helen Anna Flanagan and Gavin Gayagoy navigate experiences of alienation through societal neglect and digital isolation. Both works were created during artist residencies at FACT and developed in Studio/Lab, our dedicated space for nurturing and supporting artistic practice.

Burnt Toast is a contemporary ghost story by Helen Anna Flanagan. The film resurrects legendary British comedian Tommy Cooper, who famously died mid-performance in 1984. Combining machine learning, analogue technologies, archival materials and a trained impersonator, the film follows a failed magician trapped in his decaying home. Unemployed and struggling with mental health and social isolation, he recites memories and anecdotes haunted by the past. Through his story, Helen asks us to question how hidden structures —such as class, culture and capitalism— can shape our lives, control our actions, and leave us feeling alienated.

Read the film transcription here – Burnt Toast (2025) Transcript.

Gavin Gayagoy’s work, Doomscroll_1, explores our relationship with smartphones, focusing on the sensation of ‘doom-scrolling’ – compulsively consuming digital content, often to the detriment of mental health. Doom-scrolling often leaves people feeling trapped in an endless loop as they mindlessly switch between apps, losing track of time. Gavin utilises game design to examine how digital environments impact our emotions and, ultimately, our understanding of ourselves. His work addresses the paradox of being online – that it holds the potential to thrill and fear, offering freedom while also holding us back.

Our homes are full of ghosts – from our memories to digital presences that haunt us from our screens, drawing us into their spectral worlds and slowly building a sense of disconnection from those physically around us. In this exhibition, both artists use the domestic setting as a way to think about the technologies, social conditions and societal structures that create this strange loneliness in being connected.

Feature Image: Gavin Gayagoy, Doomscroll_1 (2025). Photograph, courtesy the artist.

 

Knuck & Knuckle (13 mins)

Knuck & Knuckle is a short film born from Irish artist, Frank McCarthy’s collaboration with a group of Irish Traveller boys passionate about boxing but less drawn to visual arts. Frank introduced Paint Punch, a technique where participants strike paint onto boards to create abstract artworks, a process that quickly captured their engagement and motivation, which features in the film.

The film follows the story of Lee Reeves, an internationally acclaimed boxer from Southill, one of Limerick’s most disadvantaged areas. His journey, marked by resilience, grief, and mental health struggles, speaks directly to young men living on society’s margins. In conversation with music artist WILLZEE, Lee shares an honest exchange about growing up in a working-class estate, offering a rare insight into contemporary Irish life.

Directed by first-time filmmakers Ellie Marron and Sean Horgan, with cinematography by Marron, sound and score by Evan O’Malley, David Sheerin and McCarthy, plus vocals by teenage singer Rosie McCarthy. The film is produced by Frank McCarthy and Monica Spencer for The GAFF. Knuck & Knuckle was awarded Best Documentary Short at Limerick’s Catalyst International Film Festival in 2025.

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Tony Birtill memorial lecture/ Léacht bliaintiúl in Tomós Antón Birtill

Conradh na Gaeilge Learpholl, in partnership with the Liverpool Irish Festival, are pleased to present the annual Tony Birtill Lecture.

On 21 Oct 2021, Liverpool (and Ireland) lost a great Irish Language supporter; Tony Birtill. He made an invaluable contribution to the conservation, promotion and teaching of the Irish language on Merseyside for over 30 years. A Gaeilgeoir (fluent Irish speaker) and walking enthusiast, Tony was also a keen historian and language activist. His widely acclaimed book Liverpool – A Hidden History gives a very incisive insight into the lives and living conditions of Irish emigrants living in Liverpool in the aftermath of the Great Famine (1845-1852).

This year’s memorial lecture is in two parts and will be delivered by local historian Greg Quiery and Dr. Eoghan Ahern from the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies. Greg’s talk will be about the establishment of the Great Hunger commemoration memorial in the gardens of St Luke’s Bombed Out Church in 1998 and Dr. Ahern’s talk will be about the impact of the Famine on the Irish language. Join us to hear to Greg Quiery and Dr. Ahern deliver two most interesting talks.

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Button Masher! Interactive Movie Night

Our first ever event!

Button Masher! A night of interactive movies straight from the DVD era. Come down and get your voice heard, make decisions about the fate of the films!

This month we are screening Advanced Warriors (2003) a hidden gem of the genre. The first ever martial arts interactive film.

Set in a parallel universe, in which the planet Argonia exists in the same location as our Earth. Argonia is invaded by a horde known as the Sirroms, and the planet’s Guardian Force has to find a way to save it. In a last-ditch effort to save the planet, the Guardian opens a rift between Argonia and our Earth, and selects four warriors from Earth’s timeline, who have an inert DNA strand that marks them as potential saviours of Argonia. Manipulating the DNA of these four ordinary people, the Guardian is able to bring these planet-saving abilities to the surface, and turns them into the eponymous Advanced Warriors. You decide what path the warriors take, and make critical decisions for them.

There will also be some special surprises in store ?

Button Masher! Interactive Movie Night

Our first ever event!

Button Masher! A night of interactive movies straight from the DVD era. Come down and get your voice heard, make decisions about the fate of the films!

This month we are screening Advanced Warriors (2003) a hidden gem of the genre. The first ever martial arts interactive film.

Set in a parallel universe, in which the planet Argonia exists in the same location as our Earth. Argonia is invaded by a horde known as the Sirroms, and the planet’s Guardian Force has to find a way to save it. In a last-ditch effort to save the planet, the Guardian opens a rift between Argonia and our Earth, and selects four warriors from Earth’s timeline, who have an inert DNA strand that marks them as potential saviours of Argonia. Manipulating the DNA of these four ordinary people, the Guardian is able to bring these planet-saving abilities to the surface, and turns them into the eponymous Advanced Warriors. You decide what path the warriors take, and make critical decisions for them.

There will also be some special surprises in store ?

Beyond the Screen: The Art of Programming – with Rose Butler (Picturehouse)

 

Ever wondered how cinemas choose the films they screen? Or why some great films never make it into festivals?

Join us for The Art of Programming, a one-off workshop with Rose Butler, one of Picturehouse’s national programmers and former curator at Sheffield’s Showroom Cinema. 

This two-hour session explores what it means to curate for cinema, how programmers think, how screenings are shaped, and what makes a film stand out from a programming perspective. 

Expect live insight from Rose’s work in independent and national cinema, hands-on creative tasks, group discussions, and a chance to step into the mindset of a film programmer. 

Whether you’re a filmmaker, actor, writer, programmer or just a film lover, this session will change the way you watch, select and present cinema. 

 

LMF Short Film Sandbox Showcase

 

The Sandbox Showcase – Edition Four

Presented by Let’s Make Films CIC

? Picturehouse @ FACT – Liverpool

The Sandbox Showcase is Liverpool’s alternative creative film night. A vibrant evening built around the bold and exciting short pieces of work, the emerging filmmakers and creatives and a community-led night that is bursting with creative energy and life. All here to celebrate the work on the biggest screen. 

Now in its fourth edition, The Sandbox has become a creative home for filmmakers who are doing things differently! First-timers, grassroots crews, DIY Storytellers and new voices that have exciting stories to tell! 

The event takes place at Picturehouse @ FACT and features a carefully curated lineup of 10-12 short pieces of work. Some are emotional, some are experimental, some are terrifying, but most importantly, all of them bring a unique voice to the big screen. You will get a chance to hear from the creatives about their work and process before screening their work. The night will also include the winner of our special DIY challenge, a quarterly filmmaking challenge that pushes creatives to make something from nothing. 

The Sandbox isn’t just a screening either. We offer a pre-creative mixer before the show starts where you can get yourself a drink and relax and mingle with your fellow creatives and community. And even better, after the final film rolls, you can continue the conversation in the bar in the post-creative mixer and meet the creatives behind the work that you loved seeing. 

What to expect throughout the night:

  • A packed cinema screening 10-12 bold peices of creative work.
  • A DIY film made for our Trial & Error challenge. 
  • Meet the creatives behind the work in our creative mixers.
  • Music, good vibes and a community-first atmosphere. 

 

If you’re an emerging filmmaker, creative, artists, storyteller, or just a film-fan looking for something different in the city, then the Sandbox is perfect for you. 

So, come along, bring a mate, come by yourself, grab a drink and be part of special night that belongs to the creatives. 

 

The Harder They Come

 

THE EVENT

In this mix of crime, blaxploitation and western, Ivan (played by reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff) wants to make it big as an reggae artist. But after becoming victim to the deep rooted corruption that goes on from the police to the record producers, this country boy fights tooth and nail, with blood, sweat and more blood to get what he wants and prove to the city folk that he’s not to be messed with. As writer-director Perry Henzell comments on the complexities of 1970’s capitalism, the prison system, poverty and stardom, we’re left to ask the question, “what would you do to make it?”.

With an iconic soundtrack and cult status in Jamaican cinema, this independence day I want to celebrate with The Harder They Come, good music and good food! Come and grab your ticket today, what are you waiting for?

Tickets start from £1 so grab yours now by clicking the link on the right or on the door!

7:00PM – DOORS OPEN

We’ll be serving refreshments

7:30PM – THE HARDER THEY COME BEGINS

9:00PM – POST SCREENING DISCUSSION

THE FILM

Year: 1972

Runtime: 1h 43m

Certificate: 15

Director: Perry Henzell

Writers: Perry Henzell, Trevor D. Rhone

Country: Jamaica

Languages: Jamaican Patois, English

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Western

Cast: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw

Synopsis: Wishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.

The Harder They Come trailerThis screening is in collaberation with Liverpool African Diaspora Film Network

Presented by Black Girl Watching Film Club

 

The Legend of the Looms

Join LAAF for a screening and conversation with poet and filmmaker Ali Al-Jamri on his first film, described as a poetic ghost story.

The Legend of the Looms is Ali Al-Jamri’s first film: a poetic ghost story.When a visitor to a historic weaver’s house in Rossendale accidentally summons an irate Lancashire weaver’s ghost, his own ancestor, an Arab weaver from Bahrain, materialises to defend him.

Watch the trailer.

Working in film for the first time, Ali Al-Jamri’s The Legend of The Looms is both a poem and a film exploring shared revolutionary histories through handloom weaving. It is a narrative debate poem between two ghostly weavers: one from the North West, where weavers were critical in working class movements; the other from Bahrain, where weaving communities played vital roles in reform movements.

Filmed with the weavers of Al-Jamri’s own family in Bahrain, and in Rossendale Valley, at a historic weaver’s cottage in Rawtenstall, the piece dances between place, fact and folklore, creating a new myth that explores how people of the diaspora can relate to an unlikely new landscape through the interconnectivity of oppressions, craft, and mortality.

Ali Al-Jamri is one of Manchester’s inaugural Multilingual City Poets (2022-2025). The film is commissioned by the Arab British Centre and funded by Arts Council England and the Freelands Foundation. It was first exhibited at Blackburn Art Gallery with the British Textile Biennial.