Celebration, Spectacle, Ritual

This special screening brings together distinct perspectives on how ritual and celebration reshape public space, memory, and identity in the UK. 'New Territories (spectacle is king)' by Rhea Storr (2025), 'The Flora Faddy Furry Dance Day' by Richard Philpott (1989), and 'Syncopated Green' by Arjuna Neuman (2022) recall personal and cultural histories and traditions as they explore Caribbean carnivals, a Cornish festival, and outdoor raves as sites of both joy and resistance.

The programme will be shown twice throughout the event from 4 to 6pm, with refreshments and an opportunity to gather together in the LUX garden.

‘New Territories (spectacle is king)’, Rhea Storr (2025), 17 min

A summer in the life of a filmmaker weaving her way through six carnivals in England. ‘New Territories’ observes Caribbean cultural life celebrated and contested in public space. We witness multi stage soundsystems, Black Lives Matter floats, histories of violence and peace in the geography of local cities. This film is about how to (and how not to) make an image.

The film is inspired by Isaac Julien’s ‘Territories’, made with Sankofa Film and Video Collective in 1984. While Julien catalogues the antagonistic relationship between Black community and the police at Notting Hill Carnival, ‘New Territories’ considers the role of spectatorship turned consumerism in laying the ground in which Black and Caribbean identities are defined.

‘The Flora Faddy Furry Dance Day’, Richard Philpott (1989), 10 min

Using only music and image, the film follows the structure of the Helston Flora Day and its Furry (or Faddy) Dance (the largest and most ancient ritual dance still performed in Britain today), recalling the spiritual sources of the Celtic Spring festival of Beltane that are deep within all of us – its ritual of purification, fertility, the triumph of Life over Death and the victory of Light over Darkness [...] Emphasising the dance/music repetitions, the film stimulates collective unconscious emotions and is finally overwhelmed in an expression of ritual ecstasy.

Syncopated Green, Arjuna Neuman (2024), 14 min

Syncopated Green calls on the history of outdoor free parties to re-describe the English Countryside. The film listens to rave music, past and present, to help forget the official portrayal of England as picturesque, nostalgic, white, and rural. These traditional images of a “proper” England not only prop up the walls of national museums still today, but they also feed a growing conservatism that sustains Imperial fantasies, slavery legacies and Brexit realities. [...] Syncopated Green aims to include rave music into the English landscape genre and tradition – turning imperial history inside out. Rave music and its wider culture, importantly, celebrates black and brown artists and audiences, and has done so since its inception. Somewhere between a music video, a memoir, and an essay, the film asks, how might the current socio-political situation and looming future be different if we had other histories to lean on and dance with?

Curated by Sara Ismail and Jaison Washington, Collection & Archive Assistants. Sara and Jaison’s roles at LUX are supported by Art Fund.

Tickets: General – £6, Concession – £3

Concession tickets are offered for those who might experience barriers in attending. To make participation in the event as accessible as possible, you won’t be asked for any proof or ID – we just ask that you are honest.

Here are the questions to think about when planning to purchase a concession ticket:

• I may stress about meeting my basic needs but still regularly achieve them.
• I may have some debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs.
• I am able to afford non-essential expenses, such as dining out or entertainment activities.
• I have very limited expendable income.
• I rarely buy new items.

Auditory/Visual Access: We have hearing loops in the black box, a large print guide and magnifying glasses available in the space.

Sensory Access: Please note that the exhibition space is very dark, and the sound/noise volume is adjusted to a higher level.

You can find general access information here

If you have any access needs to attend our events please contact us at +44(0)20 3141 2960 or events@lux.org.uk