What to do this weekend, from hip-hop choreography to the wit of Schiaparelli

Ten minutes

The Mountain, the Moon Cave and the Sad God – a Gorillaz short film

Here’s an antidote to the synthetic ubiquity of gen AI slop: this stunning animated short film, released at the same time as Gorillaz’ new album, The Mountain, is a lovingly hand-crafted work and a throwback to the cel animation style of the 1950s and 1960s. Co-directed by Gorillaz’ Jamie Hewlett, and Max Taylor and Tim McCourt of London-based animation studio The Line, the film’s gorgeous visual textures and depth result from an inventive combination of hand drawing and digital manipulations. In the film, 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel venture to an India inspired by Disney’s 1967 classic The Jungle Book.

Watch here

Fifty minutes

Till April Is Dead – a Garland of May, by Lisa Knapp

Welcome the return of spring by listening to Lisa Knapp’s deliciously wayward 2017 experimental folk album. Knapp’s pure, crystalline vocals are juxtaposed against frayed layers of folk history and sounds harvested from the hedgerows. It’s a magical, free-spirited, slightly feral creation that conjures images of pagan rituals, ancient rites and excessive mead consumption. A perfect soundtrack to drive the remnants of that cold winter away.

Two hours

Boy Blue: Cycles, at the Roundhouse

Programmed as part of the Roundhouse’s Three Sixty Festival, Cycles by the Olivier award-winning hip-hop dance company Boy Blue, first performed at the Barbican, has been reworked for the Roundhouse’s circular stage. Expect high energy, fluid, dynamic choreography and an infectious joy from the dancers. Plus there’s a seven-piece live band accompanying the performance.

See roundhouse.org.uk

An afternoon

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art

The Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli didn’t make the kind of outfits you could slip on for a late-night dash to the corner shop. Her designs, which existed in the intersection between fashion and conceptual art, were extravagant performances and events in their own right. Surrealism was a major influence: Schiaparelli was a friend and collaborator of Salvador Dalí. Now we mere fashion mortals get to experience her wit and weirdness in a show at the V&A (it’s sold out this weekend but members can still get in).

An evening

Yi Yi, directed by Edward Yang

A sprawling, humorous, graceful and richly complex portrait of family life in Taipei, Yi Yi, by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, is a marvel of a film that wears its nearly three-hour running time effortlessly and lightly. The picture weaves together the perspectives of three members of the Jian family: the father, the teenage daughter and a child who is obsessed with photographing the backs of people’s heads. Yi Yi screens as part of an Edward Yang retrospective at the Prince Charles Cinema in central London.

Illustration by Charlotte Durance