Cadences of Refusal

Activated by political urgency and defiance, these five works envision a collective reimagining and remaking of the world. Each crafts a counter-grammar to traditional non-fiction cinema – grounded in poetry, fragmentation, inquiry and the voice.

Screening dates and booking

Check which tickets are still available across the festival – and find out about extra ticket releases and standby queues.

Credits

  • Total running time

    77min

  • Programmed by

    Hyun Jin Cho, Qila Gill, Erik Martinson

  • Content warning

    This short film programme contains flashing images, scenes of suicide, scenes of animal slaughter, racist attitudes and language, and sexist attitudes and language.

Daria’s Night Flowers

  • Director-screenwriter

    Maryam Tafakory

  • Iran-UK-France 2025. 16min

  • Language

    Farsi
    With English subtitles

  • Content warning

    Contains scenes of suicide, and sexist attitudes and language.

Drawing on an archive of Persian-language films, this dreamlike collage unfolds a surreal, fragmented narrative of desire and resistance, defying censorship and ideological conformity.

New Territories (Spectacle is King)

  • Director-screenwriter

    Rhea Storr

  • UK 2025. 17min

  • Language

    Dialogue-free

Drawing inspiration from Isaac Julien’s 1984 work Territories, this incisive film traverses six carnivals across England, critically examining the politics of image-making and spectatorship.

Tuktuit: Caribou

  • Director-screenwriter

    Lindsay McIntyre

  • Canada 2025. 15min

  • Language

    Dialogue-free
    With English subtitles

  • Content warning

    Contains scenes of animal slaughter.

Filmed in Nunavut and shaped with handmade emulsions, this painterly film conjures the organic grammar of lichen as it explores the legacies of colonialism and environmental rupture.

Another Other

  • Director-screenwriter

    Bex Oluwatoyin Thompson

  • USA 2025. 9min

  • Language

    English
    With English subtitles

  • Content warning

    Contains racist attitudes and language. Contains flashing images.

Centring two Black figures under integration by white state officials, this work reveals the insidious nature of systemic racism through an affecting interplay of image, sound and subtitle.

Morning Circle

  • Director-screenwriter

    Basma al-Sharif

  • Germany-Canada-UAE 2025. 20min

  • Languages

    German, Armenian, Arabic
    With English subtitles

Morgenkreis, a daily kindergarten ritual, becomes a lens on Western hegemony – exposing colonial origins, liberal mythologies, and the state’s choreography of separation and discipline.

How to book

Tickets start from £10 for all screenings and events in London, with concessions available for many screenings. Booking information and ticket prices.

If you’re aged 16 to 25, sign up for free to BFI 25 and Under for a chance to get £6 tickets to all screenings and events (subject to availability).

Missed out?

More tickets may become available for these screenings before and during the festival. Find out about extra ticket releases and standby queues.

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