exhibition

Sound & Vision: A Season of Films About Music

Following our BLKNWS theatrical residency, The Underground Cinema presents Sound & Vision: a season of music-oriented films, featuring legendary live shows, iconic documentaries, and cult classics.

Each week we will be showing a new film as part of Sound & Vision. These include an incredible live performance by Fred Again – Secret Life live at the Coliseum, as well as Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande, the largely unheard tale of the greatest ever UK jazz fusion band; the iconic Paris is Burning, the award-winning documentary chronicling New York's 1980s ballroom culture; Finding Fela – the story of Afrobeat master musician and activist Fela Kuti; Sisters with Transistors, an inspiring documentary showcasing the female pioneers of electronic music, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, an intimate film about the practice and influence of the legendary Japanese musician; Bowie – The Final Act, the story of how David Bowie reinvented himself with his extraordinarily creative last decade, and Keyboard Fantasies, the emotive tale of mystical trans musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland.

Complementing these music films on the big screen will be a rotating program of seminal music videos by movie directors in our adjacent exhibition space. These include Jamie xx – Gosh (Romain Gavras), Beyonce – Formation (Melina Matsoukas), Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes (Kahlil Joseph), FKA Twigs – EUSEXUA (Jordan Hemingway) Lana Del Rey – Ride (Anthony Mandler). Aphex Twin – Windowlicker (Chris Cunningham), Kendrick Lamar – Humble (Dave Meyers), Bjork – It's Oh So Quiet (Spike Jonze) and Travis Scott – 4x4 (Gabriel Moses).

Book Tickets

Sound & Vision Films

Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande

Directed by Tim Mackenzie-Smith, 2022

The incredible story of the UK’s best-ever jazz-funk bands, whose sound has influenced generations with their irresistible rhythms and message of peace.

Screening dates – April 10, 11, 12, 15, 16

Finding Fela

Directed by Alex Gibney, 2014

The story of Afrobeat pioneer, musical mastermind and restless agent for change, Fela Kuti’s life, his music, his social and political importance.

Screening dates – April 17, 18, 19, 22, 23

Fred again – Secret Life at the Coliseum

Directed by Lucy Hickling, 2024

An intimate, ambient live set by Fred again, performing his album ‘secret life’ for 100 fans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 11 June 2024.

Screening dates – April 24, 25, 26, 29, 30

Keyboard Fantasies

Directed by Posy Dixon, 2019

Emerging from years in isolation to an enraptured crowd, transgender, septuagenarian musical genius Beverly Glenn-Copeland finally finds his place in the world. Keyboard Fantasies tells the tale of this mystical musician as he embarks on his first international tour at the age of 74.

Screening dates – May 1, 2, 3, 6, 7

Paris Is Burning

Directed by Jennie Livingston, 1990

This Sundance-winning, iconic cult classic is a must-see movie: filmed in the mid-late 1980s, it chronicles the drag ball culture of New York: a world of fierce competition, sustenance, and survival.

Screening dates – May 8, 9, 10, 13, 14

Bowie: The Final Act

Directed by Jonathan Stiasny, 2025

Ten years on from the release of his final album, Bowie: The Final Act charts the extraordinary last creative chapter of one of music’s most iconic and inventive artists.

Screening dates – May 15, 16, 17, 20, 21

Sisters with Transistors

Directed by Lisa Rovner, 2020

The story of electronic music’s female pioneers, including Delia Darbyshire, Laurie Anderson and Suzanne Ciani – composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies.

Screening dates – May 22, 23, 24, 27, 28

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda

Directed by Stephen Nomura Schible, 2017

An intimate documentary chronicling the legendary composer’s life, focusing on his creation of the album async following a cancer diagnosis, his activism against nuclear power, and his career spanning four decades.

Screening dates – May 29, 30, 31, June 3, 4

Visitor Information

Location

6 Surrey Street
London WC2R 2ND

Opening Hours

Bookable limited capacity sessions only

A New Home for Film at 180 Studios

The Underground Cinema celebrates the medium of film in all its many forms, from feature length movies to music documentaries, new artist commissions to unexpected creative collaborations.