Listen With Your Eyes is an ongoing series of screenings for children of all ages and their grown-up companions. It’s a space where curious minds and open hearts can come together to explore the wonders of experimental cinema.

With this programme, we’ve been reflecting on the power of care in the earliest chapters of life. These films honour both the labour and the emotional richness of looking after and being with one another. They remind us that care isn’t just something given or received, but a multi-directional, ever-changing exchange, an improvised dance, a story that’s always unfolding.
– Hyun Jin Cho.

Ticket holders are welcome to join us early for a free 16mm direct animation activity between 10:30 and 11:15 at the Close-up Film Centre.

Please note that this is a relaxed screening, open to children of all ages.

Programme:

The Demands of Ordinary Devotion
Eva Giolo I 2022 I Belgium, Italy | 12 min

Through a game of chance and fragmented encounters in Rome, The Demands of Ordinary Devotion explores the physical language of making and the uncertainties of motherhood, balance, and composition.

Furies
Sara Petty I 1976 I USA I 3 mins

Two cats move as one – prowling in tender synchrony – as Petty’s animation flows with lyrical motion and shifting perspective.

Fire
Lucy Parker / 2016 I UK I 6 min

Made in response to the work of British artist Annabel Nicolson, Lucy Parker’s Fire shows two women attempting to spark a fire through increasingly sophisticated means. 

You Be Mother
Sarah Pucill I 1990 I UK I 7 mins

You Be Mother employs stop-frame animation to blur the boundaries between the animate and the inanimate, as a projected image of the artist’s face onto crockery transforms the tabletop into an enchanting magic show, hidden from the world of daytime.

Going to the Mountain
Jenny Brady I 2016 I Ireland I 10 mins

Through slow motion, repetition, and reflection, Going to the Mountain observes three pre-verbal children whose gestures and rhythms reveal a rich, non-verbal language shaped by movement and music.

Out-takes
Maria Anastassiou I 2025 I UK I 5 mins

Made from experimental multiple exposures shot between reels on a hand-cranked Bolex, this film reflects on light, colour, and the intertwining of creative practice and early parenthood.

Listen with your Eyes is an ongoing series of screenings organised by Open City Documentary Festival and co-programmed by Hyun Jin Cho & Oliver Wright. 

Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. www.filmlondon.org.uk/film-hub-london