Event type: Film

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.

Dounia Part 1 & 2: Cinema at Crosby Plaza

 

Join LAAF for this family friendly screening of animated films Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo, and Dounia – The Great White North.

 

 

Dounia And The Princess of Aleppo (2022) A few nigella seeds tucked in the palm of her hand, 6-year-old Dounia leaves Syria with the Princess of Aleppo’s help and travels towards a new world.

Dounia – The Great White North (2024, UK premiere) is an animated winter special about how little Dounia, the Syrian girl now aged 7 years old, finds a new home and makes new friends in beautiful Canada, while hoping her dad will join her soon.

The creator and author of Dounia, Marya Zarif, was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria. She has lived in Canada for the past 15 years but remains very attached to her country of origin and the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing the war. “Like Dounia, because I come from Syria, I know that there is nothing more wonderful than a land where people, cultures, colours, languages and customs meet and mix. It has been Syria for millennia; it is the world of today. I gave birth to all those characters to give faces to all the migrants who have become numbers and whose humanity is forgotten. Dounia is a declaration of love to my people and a gift to those who open their arms to them,” she says.

André Kadi, who arrived in Canada in 2007 as a graphic novel author and a musician, joined Frima animation studios, where he stayed for over 11 years. At the head of the artistic department, he founded a branch of the studio in Bordeaux , and opened a 2D animation studio in 2012, where he made the series MaXi and Agent Jean in particular, before co- founding Du Coup Animation in 2018 with Marie-Michel le Laflamme, then Du Coup Production in 2021. A rigorous studio head who directs most of Du Coup’s projects, he co-directed Dounia in 2020 on behalf of Tobo, with Marya Zarif.

Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo is his first feature film.

Age recommendation: 6+£6 (Free entry for under 16s)

Doors 1:30pm / Screening 2pm

Venue:

 

 

Crozby Plaza, 13 Crosby Rd N, Waterloo, Liverpool L22 0LD