Shuffle Festival returns this August for its fifth year. The festival exhibits creativity through film, science, performance,  architectural installations, walks, food, and music every year. Shuffle is primarily a grassroots, not-for-profit organisation that evolved from local activism at the St. Clements site and has taken root as an important part of cultural life and community cohesion in Mile End. With just under a month until the annual Shuffle Festival rolls around, we’ve looked over this year’s offering and picked five events from a packed weekend.

Make sure to look out for SP’s own Cath Le Couteur’s Science + Ethics Talk, “Who Owns Outer-Space?” with Dr. Jill Stuart and Nick Ryan. Cath and Nick are co-creators of Adrift, a short documentary that explores the troubling, beautiful, dangerous, and fascinating world of space junk. The documentary is followed by a talk led by Dr. Jill Stuart, an expert in the politics, ethics and law of outer space exploration and exploitation at London School of Economics, where she will discuss what lies above us. This will occur on Saturday, August 26th at 15:30 in the Octagonal Shelter.

Next to look out for is the screening of Bullet Boy followed by a Q&A with Ashley Walters. Bullet Boy looks at the relationship between young men and their home, exploring the affect that toxic masculinity has on a young group of East London teenagers. Bullet Boy will screen on Saturday, August 26th at 19:45 at Cantrell Field. The screening will include a Q&A with one of the main cast members, Ashley Walters.

We are also interested to see the screening of Mustang. Deniz Gamze Erguven’s much acclaimed film tells the story of five orphaned sisters living in a Turkish village who live under strict rule. When the girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalised conservative guardians confine them while members of their family prepare their arranged marriages. It will screen on Saturday, August 26th at 22:15 at The Women’s Workhouse.

Another film that has grabbed our attention is Farooki Mostofa Sarwar ‘s Television. As a leader of the local community, Chairman Amin bans every kind of image in his water-locked village in rural Bangladesh. He even goes on to claim that imagination is also sinful since it gives one the license to infiltrate into any prohibited territory. But change is a desperate wind that is difficult to resist by shutting the window. The film will screen on Sunday, August 27th at 14:00 at The Underground Carpark.

Sam Mendes’ American Beauty depicts the story of Lester Burnham who is suffering a mid-life crisis. His obsession with his daughter’s best friend propels him into a land of fantasy and he attempts to reinvent himself as a pot-smoking, responsibility-shirking teenager. The film will screen on Sunday, August 27th at 22:00 at Horse Chestnut Glade.

The Shuffle Festival takes place August 26-27. Make sure to get your tickets for Saturday and Sunday that will give you free access to any of the events taking place. See you there.