Films are Gay! presents: Mikaël (1924, dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer) with live score!

The landmark queer film of the silent era, Mikaël (with the more blatant alternative title of Chained: The Story of the Third Sex) is screening at the Finch Community Cinema as the third installment of our Silent Films are Gay! Series. Before directing such monumental fixtures of cinema as The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, and Days of Wrath, Carl Theodor Dreyer experimented with his first signature close shots in Mikaël, adapted from the novel by gay writer Herman Bang. Master artist Claude Zoret (Benjamin Christensen, filmmaker of Häxan) finds his muse and lover, the young, handsome Mikaël (Walter Slezak) slipping away, just as the world, and his place in it does. Mikaël is a sweeping, emotive, visually lush portrait of queer love and heartbreak, and the artistic acceptance of mortality. Harangued by critics of its day for its not-so subliminal queer themes, Mikaël has become a fixture of queer cinema history, and an undeniable must to be included in our Silent Films are Gay Season. The film will be live accompanied by Cyrus Gabrysch, who has worked with the BFI, London Film Festival, and English National Ballet, and will include a special introduction from theatre director and playwright Alex Hurst. Tickets are £7, with 15% of all sales donated to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians). Doors 6:30pm, Film starts 7pm.