Monocle

Something for your weekend: Monocle’s global selection, including exhibitions to lose your Saturday in, a photography festival on the Channel Islands, and an impressive new short storyteller with ten tales on the subject of smoking.

In its second year, the Guernsey Photography Festival expects to attract around 20,000 visitors to the tiny Channel Island over the course of June. This Saturday, check out a talk by Cameroonian artist Samuel Fosso – who takes politically charged self-portraits – his work has been shown at London’s Photographers Gallery and the Guggenheim in New York.

Samuel Fosso talk at Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts, St Peter Port, 19.30, June 4. Guernsey Photography Festival, at various venues until June 30.
guernseyphotographyfestival.com

Gérard Depardieu lands his best role in years as a gruff new retiree forced to take to the road to settle his old debts. Awkward reunions with characters from his past are discouraging at first – yet hilarious – but his journey takes a different turn as he reconnects with an offbeat niece who teaches him to appreciate his newly found freedom. A poetic gem with stellar performances by the crème de la crème of French cinema.
‘Mammuth’ is out now on general worldwide release.

To coincide with last week’s passing of World No Tobacco Day, read Staurt Ever’s debut collection of short stories loosely threaded together by the subject of cigarettes. The 10 tales are all moody and intense, especially ‘Underground,’ whose anguished protagonist believes it was his match that sent London’s Kings Cross Station up in flames in 1987. A wonderful debut: like a nicotine addict, we’re desperate for our next hit from Evers.
Stuart Evers ‘Ten Stories About Smoking’ on general release now, published by Picador.

For 10 days, Williamsburg’s music hipsters step aside for coach-loads of film buffs, as Brooklyn is taken over once again by its annual indie cinema fair. Launched in 1998, the BFF’s 14th edition will screen 101 films from 26 countries. Don’t miss the docu opener ‘Battle for Brooklyn’ by Suki Hawley & Michael Galinsky, and the debut feature by writer/director Anna Kerrigan, ‘Five Days Gone’ (pictured above).
‘Five Days Gone’ at 20.00, 4 June, Brooklyn Heights Cinema, 70 Henry Street, Brooklyn. Brooklyn Film Festival, at various venues, until June 12.
brooklynfilmfestival.org

London-based artist and Central St Martins tutor Tatiana de Stempel will show 30 drawings and paintings in the Belfry of the St John on Bethnal Green inspired by one of the most excitingly ecclesiastical tomes, Dante’s Divine Comedy. On Saturday night, there will be a special screening of the 2009 animation of Dante’s Inferno in the church at 20.00.
The Belfry, St John on Bethnal Green, 200 Cambridge Heath Road, London. Open daily, 10.00 – 16.00. Until June 26.
stjohnonbethnalgreen.org