London Short Film Festival 2019 will take place between 11–20 January. Now in its 16th edition, the festival’s core theme this year is alternative 1980s culture, and it will feature a selection of UK and international short films on music, politics, culture, LGBTQ+ and BAME issues.

The programme includes a celebration of the 1980s agitprop Scratch Video movement; live music from Wrangler; a screening of John Lurie’s series Fishing With John; Natalie Sharp aka Lone Taxidermist curating a series of performances and films at the inflatable venue Air Draft; the music videos of Derek Jarman; a visual history of underground label Hyperdub with Cooly G; Club des Femmes revisiting Pratibha Parmar’s document of black, queer resistance A Place Of Rage; and New Queer Visions curating a series of LGBTQ+ films and documentaries.

Also showing: a Cosey Fanni Tutti retrospective; a selection of short films from the former German Democratic Republic commemorating 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall; Now! That's What I Call 80s Short Film featuring works by directors Clio Barnard, Andrew Kötting and Sally Potter: and the Supakino: Turbans Through Time series’ history of the changing representation of Sikhs in film.

On the closing night LSFF will celebrate black women redefining Afrofuturism through electronic experimentation in No Woman Is An Island, featuring Shannen SP, Xana and Nkisi. The latter will also be performing an exclusive live premiere of her debut album 7 Directions ahead of its mid-January release.

The festival’s new programming partnerships include Africa Is A Country and London Migration Festival, who will focus on the self-authored black British presence on screen, and the Stuart Hall Foundation, who will present a screening and round table discussion about It (still) Ain’t Half Racist Mum!.

For full listings you can visit the LSFF website.