DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK: UNITED RED ARMY
Sometime pink-film director Koji Wakamatsu's lauded 2007 docu-drama, which features a music score from Jim O'Rourke, splices explosively tense archive footage with acted sequences to depict the rise and self-destructive fall of one of the most extreme young revolutionary groups of the '60s - Japan's left-wing United Red Army. Screening at London's ICA on February 7.
TRAILER OF THE WEEK: F*CK FOR FOREST
Selling access to home-made porn and holding public orgies is the MO by which Berlin-based activist NGO Fuck for Forest raises money for rescuing rainforests. Young Polish director Michal Marczak hung out with the group of eccentrics to document their controversial activities in a film inspired by curiosity (rather than agenda-hammering) that raises intriguing questions about contemporary lifestyles and community engagement. The film is set for UK release in April, and screens at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands on February 1.
NEW FILM OF THE WEEK: ANTIVIRAL
The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree with Brandon Cronenberg's impressive feature debut, which bears close kinship to the body-horror films of his old man David. An icily elegant and creepy satire of celebrity culture, it plays out in a world in which fans pay to be infected with the diseases of their idols. The film is out in the UK on February 1. Read our interview with Brandon Cronenberg from the current issue of Dazed here.
OLD FILM OF THE WEEK: TOMMY
"Your senses will never be the same" was the tagline of director Ken Russell's 1975 take on The Who's rock-opera concept album, and its blazing weirdness hasn't faded with time. An onslaught of kaleidoscopic kitsch and dark psychology, it features Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and Eric Clapton as the preacher of a Marilyn Monroe-worshipping religious cult. Screening on February 1 and 3 at London's BFI Southbank.
EVENT OF THE WEEK: BERLINALE
The Berlin International Film Festival is set to kick off in Germany's capital. Highlights include biopic of Linda Lovelace (who gained fame with the birth of porn chic) Lovelace, doc on the shaping of Mexican pop culture by drug traffickers Narco Cultura, and new films from Bruno Dumont, Wong Kar Wai, Gus Van Sant and Matt Porterfield. February 7 to 17.
