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Cinema Versa

Some of the most exciting and innovative documentaries of the year representing a broad range of styles and subjects.

We present UK premieres of Trans Memoria, Swedish artist and filmmaker Victoria Verseau’s poetic and perceptive diary film about her experiences of gender-affirming surgery in Thailand.

How to Build a Truth Engine interrogates the information battlefield in a post-truth world with a diverse range of different experts. Two very different films use archive footage in innovative ways, Billy, an intimate and complex portrait of a man with schizophrenia, and It Was All a Dream, a feminist music journalist’s inside view of the formative years of hip hop.

Elsewhere, in Grand Theft Hamlet two out of work actors try to stage a version of Hamlet entirely within the video game, Grand Theft Auto. Alex Ross Perry pushes the boundaries with the music documentary in Pavements and The Stimming Pool is a startlingly original artistic representation of the way neurodivergent people interact with the world.

Films at LIFF 2024

  • Trans Memoria

    Dir. Victoria Verseau
    Cinema Versa Opening Film
    Fri 1 Nov and Mon 4 Nov
    Victoria Verseau presents an intimate documentary reflecting on her gender-affirming surgery and the emotions she couldn’t express in the aftermath.
    Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
    Screen 4
    Tickets
    • Fri 1 Nov
      17:00 - 18:12
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets
    • Mon 4 Nov
      16:00 - 17:12
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets

  • Billy

    Dir. Lawrence Côté-Collins
    Cinema Versa
    Sat 2 Nov and Mon 4 Nov
    Utilising a rich film archive, director Lawrence Côté-Collins crafts a frank and intimate portrait of her friend Billy living with schizophrenia.
    Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
    Screen 4
    Tickets
    • Sat 2 Nov
      13:00 - 14:47
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets
    • Mon 4 Nov
      13:45 - 15:32
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets

  • Rising Up at Night

    Dir. Nelson Makengo
    Cinema Versa
    Sat 2 Nov and Tue 12 Nov
    Nelson Makengo paints a striking and immersive picture of those surviving and finding beauty and hope in alternative sources of light in Kinshasa.
    Tickets
    • Sat 2 Nov
      16:30 - 18:06
      Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds
      Screen 1
      Tickets
    • Tue 12 Nov
      14:00 - 15:36
      Vue in the Light, Leeds
      Screen 11
      Tickets

  • Union

    Dir. Stephen Maing, Brett Story
    Cinema Versa
    Sun 3 Nov - Fri 15 Nov
    An extraordinary documentary about the epic struggle of the Amazon Labor Union to become the first officially unionised Amazon workplace in the US.
    Tickets
    • Sun 3 Nov
      13:45 - 15:25
      Vue in the Light, Leeds
      Screen 11
      Tickets
    • Thu 14 Nov
      20:00 - 21:40
      Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds
      Main Auditorium
      Tickets
    • Fri 15 Nov
      19:30 - 21:10
      Theatre in the Mill, Bradford
      Event Space
      Tickets

  • How to Build a Truth Engine

    Dir. Friedrich Moser
    Cinema Versa
    Mon 4 Nov - Wed 13 Nov
    An urgent new documentary on how to safeguard factual information in a post-truth era.
    Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
    Screen 4
    Tickets
    • Mon 4 Nov
      20:00 - 21:49
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets
    • Sat 9 Nov
      20:45 - 22:34
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets
    • Wed 13 Nov
      14:15 - 16:04
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets

  • Witches

    Dir. Elizabeth Sankey
    Cinema Versa
    Tue 5 Nov and Sat 9 Nov
    Elizabeth Sankey presents a personal exploration of post-partum depression inventively weaved together with excerpts of witches in cinema.
    Tickets
    • Tue 5 Nov
      16:00 - 17:30
      Vue in the Light, Leeds
      Screen 11
      Tickets
    • Sat 9 Nov
      14:45 - 16:15
      Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
      Main Auditorium
      Tickets

  • Pavements

    Dir. Alex Ross Perry
    Cinema Versa
    Tue 5 Nov - 20:15 - 22:23
    Director Alex Ross Perry pushes the boundaries with the music documentary form to bring us the story of the influential cult band Pavement.
    Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds
    Screen 1
    Tickets

  • The Stimming Pool + A Body Called Life

    Cinema Versa
    Thu 7 Nov and Fri 15 Nov
    This wildly imaginative film explores the possibilities of a world informed by autistic perspectives and perception.
    Tickets
    • Thu 7 Nov
      20:30 - 21:55
      Everyman Cinema Leeds, Leeds
      Screen 4
      Tickets
    • Fri 15 Nov
      18:00 - 19:25
      The Old Fire Station, Leeds
      Cafe
      Tickets

  • Grand Theft Hamlet

    Dir. Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls
    Cinema Versa
    Fri 8 Nov and Sat 9 Nov
    This hilarious and audacious documentary follows a staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet unlike any you’ve seen before.
    Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
    Main Auditorium
    Tickets
    • Fri 8 Nov
      15:30 - 16:59
      Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
      Main Auditorium
      Tickets
    • Sat 9 Nov
      12:30 - 13:59
      Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
      Main Auditorium
      Tickets

  • No Other Land

    Dir. Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
    Cinema Versa
    Fri 8 Nov and Sun 10 Nov
    A profound expression of creative resistance made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective struggling against mass expulsion during the Israeli occupation of Masafer Yatta.
    Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
    Main Auditorium
    Tickets
    • Fri 8 Nov
      17:45 - 19:20
      Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
      Main Auditorium
      Tickets
    • Sun 10 Nov
      15:00 - 16:35
      Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
      Main Auditorium
      Tickets

  • It Was All a Dream

    Dir. dream hampton
    Cinema Versa / Closing Film
    Sun 10 Nov - 19:30 - 20:53
    A powerful memoir of the early hip hop scene via a Black feminist lens, constructed from the personal archive of leading director and music journalist dream hampton.
    Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
    Main Auditorium
    Tickets