09-05-2025
Northern Youth film season to feature This is England, East is East
A Bradford-born director is curating a season of films dedicated to northern youth culture.
From May 31 to June 13, the National Science and Media Museum's Pictureville Cinema will host Northern Youth, a season of films curated by Bradford-born director Dominic Leclerc (Sex Education, Shameless, Skins).
The season's theme reflects Bradford's status as the UK's youngest city by population, with 26 per cent of residents aged under 18.
Northern Youth will place a spotlight on young northern characters in British cinema.
The season opens with the coming-of-age drama How to Have Sex (2023) on Friday, May 30.
Other highlights include Shane Meadows' This is England (2006), and a Northern Youth spin on Pictureville's Classic Sunday strand with a screening of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1962).
In June, comedy-drama East is East (1999), which was partially filmed in Bradford, will be screened thanks to a partnership between Pictureville and the British Independent Film Awards.
East is East explores the tensions of a family navigating identity, tradition, and rebellion in 1970s Northern England.
The Long Day Closes (1992), a semi-autobiographical film from Terence Davies which captures a working-class teenager's inner world in postwar Liverpool, will screen on Sunday, June 8.
Other films include West Yorkshire rural drama, My Summer of Love (2004), exploring themes of class and teenage desire, and Control (2007), a portrait of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, capturing "the youthful intensity of his brief life and tragic end in haunting black-and-white."
Further details, including guest speakers and additional events, will be announced in the coming weeks.
For more information and to book tickets, visit
