Hipgnostic presents: Sisters of the Extreme film night

7pm  Tickets £5 on the door

The dark hallucinations of Sixties London’s drug scene come to the fore in this unreleased cult feature documentary by film-makers Diane (now Flame Schon) and Sheldon Rochlin. Once dubbed “more underground than the underground”, Dope (1968) remains as controversial as when it first screened, and follows a young New Zealand girl’s descent into heroin addiction. Appearing like the dark twin to Peter Whitehead’s Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London (1967), this experimental documentary chronicles the daily life of a young woman against the swinging backdrop of London’s psychedelic UFO club, the countercultural bookshop Better Books, and the drugs counter at Boots. After the film’s screening at the Locarno film festival in 1968, Variety described it as “a rugged documentary with revealing insights into the sad, touching, downbeat and sometimes tender drug scene”. Featuring artists and legends including Marianne Faithful talking about poppers, the Australian mystical painter Vali Myers, and Donovan, Dope is a fascinating insight into the dark underbelly of London’s late Sixties counterculture.

Plus short film surprises including Anthony Stern's Iggy the Eskimo Girl (1968).

Warning: Contains scenes of hard drug use.

Benefit night for the Horse Hospital, with extra profits going towards supporting the film-makers.