Films that show that east London's very much "still got it"

I still love east London. There, I’ve said it – I know after a decade here I should be saying its gentrification has become too much, that I’m bored of Superstore, that I’m jacking it in for Hastings or Berlin or Margate. But as it stands, I’m still clinging on to my love affair with that area of the capital, like a booze-soaked limpet hiding in the cider aisle of Broadway Market Costcutter. And while I’m as miffed as the rest of us by rent hikes and people who dare to have beards/bicycles/small dogs (insert your own Daily Mail hipster cliche here), the East End is still bloody great, and events like East End Film Festival offer a reminder of why.

This year’s even has been something of a blockbuster, so we’ve picked just five highlights to share with you.

1. Dressed as a Girl, directed by Colin Rothbart

At times utterly glittery and joyful, at others grey and tear-jerkingly poignant, Colin’s film gives the east London alternative drag scene the documentation and celebration it deserves. Beautifully and sensitively done, it shows that it’s not all fake tits and tassels, but looks at the personalities and traumas that are often behind the lashes and big hair.

There are a few other films in the programme that touch on gender-play, so a special shout-out to Joseph Wilson’s short Drag is my Ecstacy and Paul Frankl’s Roxanne, a sad tale about a transgender Soho sex worker.

2. Moonchild, directed by Anne Makepeace

What EEFF does so well isn’t just its programming, but its uncovering of weird locations. One such space is the Masonic Temple, improbably nestled in the glorious Andaz Hotel next to Liverpool Street Station. One weekend saw screenings of a number of films relating to brainwashing; and the one that really stuck with us was Moonchild, a film by Anne Makepeace from 1983 that documents the “Moonies”, a much-feared 1970s cult that effectively stole the young and the vulnerable and indoctrinated them in a Christian life of singsongs, farming and some rather sinister lies and beliefs. For Anne’s film, she found former cult members and people who worked to “deprogramme” them once they’d escaped, and asked them to play themselves in a recreation of how they joined the cult and what life was like within it. There are moments of hilarity but mostly it’s a chilling narrative about how easy it is to be swept into things you never intended.

To go alongside the brainwash-based screenings, Wieden + Kennedy created a window installation that “invites people to be brainwashed.” The piece on Hanbury Street uses an optical illusion technique that feeds users messages to “alter the way they perceive the world around them,” according to the agency, and features propaganda-themed visuals to lure them in.

3. Estate, a Reverie, directed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman

I found this straight-up yet poetic documentary particularly affecting, having lived moments from the Haggerston Estate that stars in the film for a few fun and transformative years. Not nearly as transformative for me, though, as they have been for the estate, which is now unrecognisable thanks to the tsunami of “regeneration” in the area. The stories from residents of all ages and backgrounds make for charming, yet often heartbreaking viewing.

4. Salad Days, Scott Crawford

Anyone who was once young (that’d be everyone) or been into punk (that’s likely a fair few, even if you no longer admit it and listen to techno) would surely love this US documentary that follows the punk scene in Washington DC from 1980 – 90. Visceral, brutal but utterly welcoming, we see the tight-knit collection of misfits that formed around bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Fugazi. It’s something of an all-star lineup of talking heads, too, as we hear from stars including Thurston Moore and Henry Rollins.

5. Crumbs, directed by Miguel Llansó

A surreal number here from a Spanish director, which tells the story of Gagano against a backdrop of dystopian, decrepit Ethiopian landscapes. He goes about collecting scraps – or crumbs – of the crumbling world around him, including merchandise from the two big Michaels, Jackson and Jordan. “When a spaceship that has been hovering high in the sky for years starts showing signs of activity, Gagano has to overcome his fears – but also a witch, Santa Claus and second-generation Nazis – to find out that things aren’t quite the way he thought," as the programme puts it.