Experience the enchantment of craftsmanship and music with From a Forest to a Fiddle. This mesmerising ilm captures Jim McKillop as he breathes life into wood, creating a fiddle in his rural workshop for the last time. The process was filmed by Filmmaker Patrick Conway over six months, revealing the alchemy behind each violin.

The film features a soundtrack of Zoë Conway’s own score, performed by Zoë on fiddle and John McIntyre on guitar and was inspired by the ancient ogham Irish alphabet, where each letter represents a native Irish tree, as well as a new Irish translation of a poem by renowned Dubliners fiddler, John Sheahan.

Now Press Play is supported with funding from Film Hub NI

“If you’re ever going to be haunted, surrounded by several million dead people is the place. I’ve never felt so welcome in my life.” Joshua Homme

The remarkable Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the Catacombs captures QOTSA as you’ve never seen or heard them before.

The Catacombs of Paris is a sprawling 320km (200 miles) ossuary beneath the surface of Paris. Skeletal remains are largely exposed, with much of the walls built of skulls and bones. Homme has dreamt of staging a QOTSA performance in the Catacombs since his first visit nearly 20 years ago

Every aesthetic decision, every choice of song, every configuration of instruments…  absolutely everything was planned and played with deference to the historic Catacombs, from the acoustics and ambient sounds – dripping water – echoes and natural resonance to the darkly atmospheric lighting tones that enhance the music.

Before the main feature: Behind the Scenes – Alive in Paris and Before is an intimate behind the scenes documentary film, revealing the emotional and physical trials Queens of the Stone Age overcame to create Alive in the Catacombs.

Now Press Play is supported with funding from Film Hub NI.

 

Dir: Justin Kurzel. Australia 2024. 105 min

This artful, devastatingly human documentary is an intimate portrait of iconic Australian musician and composer Warren Ellis.

Director Jason Kurzel paints a vivid portrait of Ellis – a member of rock groups The Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a doting son to his father and co-founder of a wildlife sanctuary in the forests of Sumatra.

Featuring music by the man himself  (reflecting the film’s richly emotional tone) and imbued with a natural candor, Ellis Park is a truly inspiring film.

“Ellis Park moves to a strange and interesting melody… swelling and shrinking, expanding and contracting, right in front of us.” – The Guardian

“It’s a profoundly moving film of an artist looking at another and uncovering the person behind the act. It left me an emotional wreck by the end.” – Toisto

*Contains flashing images, distressing scenes and animal cruelty.

Now Press Play is supported with funding from Film Hub NI.

To mark the 100th anniversary of cinematic masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, our friends at Sound! Soundtrack Film Festival have commissioned a brand new live score from Rory Friers – the guitarist and composer from And So I Watch You From Afar. We are delighted to bring this very special screening with a specially assembled live performance to Now Press Play.

In the 100 years since it first dazzled cinema audiences, Battleship Potemkin – directed by the legendary Sergei Eisenstein – has rarely been out of contention in those endless “greatest film ever made” lists.

Potemkin is more than just a film however, it’s revolution on screen depicting real naval mutiny that ignites a wave of rebellion, told in five gripping chapters.

Eisenstein’s groundbreaking editing and striking visual style still captivate, and the legendary Odessa Steps sequence—quoted, parodied, and imitated countless times—retains its jaw-dropping power.

Join us for a magical evening in the Black Box that celebrates the rare alchemy of classic cinema and incredible live performance.

Part of Sound! Soundtrack Film Festival | Celebrating 100 Years of Eisenstein’s Masterpiece

Curated by Stephen McCauley

One of the greatest films ever made about the music industry (not to mention one of our favourites), Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville is 50 years old.

Weaving together the stories and interactions of twenty-four major characters with astonishing fluidity, this audacious, epic vision of America through the lens of the Nashville music scene has lost none of its freshness or excitement. The fact that the songs (often written by the actors performing them) are brilliant is an added delight.

Taking place over five days, the film follows our characters struggling for fulfilment, both personal and professional, amongst a backdrop of country and gospel musicians, outsider political campaigning, and the peripheries of life in between, building from one encounter at a time to create a wide-ranging tapestry of rich drama and human comedy.

The 5.1 surround sound mix at SARC elevates Altman’s famous signature use of overlapping, scattered dialogue recorded live during production and adds staggering depth, range, and a “vérité aura” to the sound, making the dialogue clear and the tunes really “pop”.

Please Note- the venue has a grid floor and high heels are not permitted.

Food and drink are not permitted in the Lab.

 

Sly Lives! is a stunningly vibrant and empathetic tribute to the late, very great Sly Stone. The film chronicles his meteoric rise—forming one of the first racially and gender‑integrated bands during the heady civil‑rights era—and his unparalleled influence on funk, soul, psychedelic rock, and subsequent genres.

Featuring vivid archival performances and intimate interviews with surviving collaborators, family, and artists like André 3000, D’Angelo, Chaka Khan, Jimmy Jam, Q‑Tip, and George Clinton, the documentary probes the title’s central thesis: the unique “burden of Black genius”

Director Questlove skilfully interweaves musical breakdowns with civil‑rights history, revealing how systemic pressures shaped Stone’s struggles with addiction and reinvention. The result is an emotionally charged, intellectually rich portrait of a man who changed music—and the cost he paid for it.

“Pop has rarely been able to look away from Sly Stone … his meteoric rise eventually led to a long, slow comedown…” – The Guardian 

Now Press Play is supported with funding from Film Hub NI.

 

The epic Free Party: A Folk History tells the previously untold story of the free party movement, Castlemorton Common Festival and the Criminal Justice Act that followed.

The film begins with the birth of the free party movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and how its impact sparked a revolution around the world, from raves and festivals to politics and protest. The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new-age travellers during Margaret Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.

The themes of the movement as depicted in Free Party are relevant once again, as new laws on trespassing and protesting are being introduced to a new generation of young people.

Trinder the director says “This film is a unique look at a much underrepresented moment in cultural history, the last great unifying youth movement, before digital cameras and the internet, which really challenged the authorities, connected environmental awareness with music and questioned laws on land rights and trespass. Thematically it’s incredibly prescient to today, with new laws on trespass and protest being introduced, raving being huge amongst young people and exactly 30 years since the Criminal Justice Bill was introduced (in 1994). I’ve got incredible access to unseen archive and grass-roots stories very seldom heard from the people who lived it”

Now Press Play is supported by Film Hub NI

Join us for the lunar trip of a lifetime as French duo Air’s landmark debut Moon Safari is reimagined in this immersive audio-visual experience. Presented in stunning Dolby Atmos surround sound to make full use of the remarkable technology of the Sonic Arts Research Lab.

Known for its dreamy blend of retro-futurist melodies, lush arrangements, and quietly intoxicating atmosphere, Moon Safari has been a touchstone for chillout and electronic music since its release.

This special event invites you to enjoy the full album alongside newly commissioned visuals that respond to its shifting moods — from the airy optimism of “La Femme d’Argent” to the wistful intimacy of “All I Need.” The combination of multi-channel sound and enveloping imagery transforms the space into a dream-state, inviting listeners to drift between nostalgia and discovery.

It’s a sensory trip you won’t forget in a hurry – an evening for those who want to hear an old favourite as if for the first time with new visuals, bathed in texture, colour, and the gentle pull of zero gravity.

This incredible film is intimate portrait of a true musical artist, charting the vertiginous arc of Judee Sill’s life – from a deeply troubled adolescence of abuse, addiction and prison through her meteoric rise in the music world.

She went from living in a car with four others sleeping in shifts to appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in four years.

Yet, for Judee, success and happiness were fleeting. While her singular sound was critically adored, her albums did not sell. Although she continued to make music, Judee was injured in an auto accident which put her in constant pain and forced her to rely again on narcotics, tragically dying of an overdose in 1979.

Through recorded interviews, concert intros and entries in her personal journal the film provides deep access to the source of her unique musical creativity and to the darker recesses of her struggles with addiction.

Additional interviews with friends and contemporaries, including Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and David Geffen give a first-hand experience of Judee’s personality, talents and struggles.

Ultimately, Lost Angel it is a story of hope, redemption and the power of art.

“The directors…put forth an empathetic portrait of an artist who was neither fit for consumption during her life, nor for obscurity thereafter. Intimate scans of Sill’s private journals detail an astonishing bittersweetness…We delight in coming to know her, even as we mourn what was never to be.” THE GUARDIAN

Screening plus Q and A and performance

Filmed at Steve Albini’s renowned Electrical Audio studio, Chicago in early 2016, Document: A film about Malojian captures the energy of a band at the top of their game, as they complete their third album This is Nowhere in just four days.

Belfast director Colm Laverty’s fly-on-the-wall approach offers an intimate glimpse at the art of analogue recording and provides an entertaining look into the process of making music. Nearly a decade on, in the wake of Albini’s untimely passing, Document is a vibrant and powerful film that sheds some light on aspects of the Albini legend as it interconnects with one of this island’s great musical forces.

We’re thrilled to welcome Malojian’s own Stevie Scullion – who will join us for a Q and A after the film with director Colm Laverty, followed by – we’re delighted to say – a musical set.

Now Press Play is supported by Film Hub NI

 

The mad, true story of the mad, brilliant rapper who was the heart and soul of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, who left the world too soon after being swallowed up by the music industry.

The names Russell Jones or even Ason Unique most likely mean nothing to folk, but it’s a safe bet that ODB – or Ol’ Dirty Bastard – probably does.

These are all aliases of the American rapper from the most important rap group of the 1990s.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard was a wild spirit and totally unpredictable bundle of energy. But he was also father and husband Russell Jones. And he was the religious Black man Ason Unique, born during the race riots of the 1960s when the country’s Black population had to fight and die for even the smallest rights.

Using unique private and archival footage, A Tale of Two Dirtys tells the story of his upbringing, through his Wu-Tang Clan heyday, to his untimely death on a dark night in 2004.

Now Press Play is supported with funding from Film Hub NI.

 

How do you kill the careers of two of the biggest pop acts in the world in one fell swoop? Simple: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

In 1978, Bee Gees and Peter Frampton were mega-stars, selling millions of records, with their faces plastered on magazine covers everywhere and playing to sold-out audiences. The sky should be been the limit, but instead Sgt Peppers was.

The film is a star-stuffed, brain-breaking testimony to the ravaging effects of cocaine in the 70s and 80s on the creative process. And whoever came up with the idea of trying to knit the Beatle’s psychedelic masterpiece into a coherent cinematic narrative certainly wasn’t short of the old devil’s dandruff.

Needless to say, it sank under the weight of its own riduculousness, taking its leads (and most of the rest of the cast) with it.

Almost everyone from the world of mid 70s rock and soul is here (Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Earth, Wind and Fire) plus Steve Martin and even Frankie Howerd as – wait for it – Mean Mr Mustard.

Join your host Joe Nawaz for a non-chemical fuelled trip to Pepperland where less is more and more is waaay too much!

Welcome to the deadpan and unsettling world of the Pet Shop Boys as brought to life in their long-forgotten feature film It Couldn’t Happen Here. Directed by former Salvadore Dali collaborator Jack Bond who sadly passed away late last year, it was released in 1988 at the very height of the band’s “imperial phase” and is accordingly glutted with PSB classics.

Special mention must also go to some deliciously ripe performances from a very English cast including Gareth Hunt, Joss Ackland and one Barbara Windsor.

The Pets play themselves (and it could be argued Chris Lowe hasn’t broken character since) as they travel through their version of 80s England in this twisty and surprisingly unnerving tale that’s part Pinter, part-end-of-the-pier avant-garde.

But it’s the incredible music throughout -– It’s a Sin, Suburbia, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Rent, West End Girls and on and on – that makes It Couldn’t Happen Here well worth our time nearly 40 years later.

“There is much to appreciate in this affectionate but unforgiving take on a not too distant world. It’s full of the melancholy that marks out the Pet Shop Boys’ best songs. It’s an outsider’s story with a sense of nostalgic longing for what never was.” EYE FOR FILM

Those that know know. For the uninitiated, Interstella 5555 is a mind-blowing 2003 anime musical science fiction film that also serves as a visual companion to Daft Punk’s legendary second album, Discovery. And this description barely scratches the surface.

Produced by Toei Animation and supervised by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto, Interstellar 5555 tells the story of a kidnapped blue-skinned extraterrestrial band who are disguised as humans and forced into a successful career as a pop band on earth before their rescue and attempt to regain their identities.

The film is wordless, using only stunning visuals and the music of Daft Punk – in particular the narrative thread of Discovery – to tell this wild tale of corporate control and the commodification of art vs musical freedom.

Did we mention it has a banging soundtrack?

Now Press Play is supported by Film Hub NI

 

The spellbinding Century of Sound tracks the history of Japan as told through their unique music cafes, where audiophiles meet to listen to the music they love.

Music is not just a way to pass the time, it’s reactive – responding to the culture in which it is created and consumed.

In Tu Neill and Nick Dwyer’s wonderfully immersive film we don’t just meet the fanatic music lovers who visit music cafes, known as Ongaku Kissa, and encounter the charismatic personalities who run them, we engage with key periods of history: the influx of western culture in the post-war era, the student protests and armed Marxists movements of the 1960s, and the economic bubble of the 1980s.

A Century in Sound gives us one hundred years in the history of Japan from the perspective of three unique Ongaku Kissa, each one home to music that defined those periods: classical, jazz and rock. The obsessive atmosphere of the cafes bleeds into each scene, making for a film that is, by turns, meditative, exciting and refreshingly original.

Now Press Play is supported by Film Hub NI

Earlier this year St Etienne announced that their latest album – International– would also be their last. Like fans everywhere, our initial dismay was tempered by the warm nostalgic glow provided by the band’s 35 years of elegant, perfect pop.

What better way to mark the passing of one of the classiest, smartest and elegiac bands of their generation, than a screening of their classy, smart and elegiac film Finisterre.

Directed by Paul Kelly (director of Lawrence of Belgravia) and Kieran Evans, presented and scored by the band, Finisterre is a “psycho-geographical” journey through their beloved London, exploring the influence of the city on the band and the dreams and realities of urban life, set to music from their wonderful album of the same name.

It features appearances from figures like Mark Perry, Julian Opie, and Vic Godard, creating a –  yes – elegiac hymn to London.

Afterwards join Joe ‘n’ John as they spin some St Etienne-inspired discs at the Stalemates “French Disco”.

Now Press Play is supported by Film Hub NI