The Underground Cinema launches music-focused film programme at 180 Studios

The programme includes Paris Is Burning, Keyboard Fantasies, Finding Fela and more.

180 Studios' dedicated film space, The Underground Cinema, opens its first music-focused season on April 10 with an extensive programme spanning live performance, documentary portraits and cult classics.

Starting with Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande, a new screening will be added each week. Running alongside the main schedule, the adjacent exhibition space will present a rotating programme of music videos by Romain Gavras, Melina Matsoukas, Kahlil Joseph, Jordan Hemingway, Anthony Mandler, Chris Cunningham, Dave Meyers, Spike Jonze and Gabriel Moses.

The film programme includes an initimate live performance from the period of Fred again...'s Secret Life tour, portraits of legendary acts such as Cymande, Fela Kuti and Ryuichi Sakamoto, cult ballroom classic Paris is Burning, the inspirational story of ambient hero Beverly Glenn-Copeland and much more.

Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande (Tim Mackenzie-Smith, 2022)

The incredible story of the UK’s best-ever jazz-funk bands, whose sound has influenced generations with their irresistible rhythms and message of peace.

Finding Fela (Alex Gibney, 2014)

The story of Afrobeat pioneer, musical mastermind and restless agent for change, Fela Kuti’s life, his music, his social and political importance.

Fred again... – Secret Life at the Coliseum (Lucy Hickling, 2024)

An intimate, ambient live set by Fred again, performing his album ‘secret life’ for 100 fans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 11 June 2024.

Keyboard Fantasies (Posy Dixon, 2019)

Emerging from years in isolation to an enraptured crowd, transgender septuagenarian musical genius Beverly Glenn-Copeland finally finds his place in the world. Keyboard Fantasies tells the tale of this mystical musician as he embarks on his first international tour at the age of 74.

Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990)

This Sundance-winning, iconic cult classic is a must-see movie: filmed in the mid-late 1980s, it chronicles the drag ball culture of New York: a world of fierce competition, sustenance, and survival.

Bowie: The Final Act (Jonathan Stiasny, 2025)

Ten years on from the release of his final album, Bowie: The Final Act charts the extraordinary last creative chapter of one of music’s most iconic and inventive artists.

Sisters with Transistors (Lisa Rovner, 2020)

The story of electronic music’s female pioneers, including Delia Darbyshire, Laurie Anderson and Suzanne Ciani – composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (Stephen Nomura Schible, 2017)

An intimate documentary chronicling the legendary composer’s life, focusing on his creation of the album async following a cancer diagnosis, his activism against nuclear power, and his career spanning four decades.