Wham! 10 Days in China review – pop meets politics in George and Andrew’s great leap east

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The duo’s groundbreaking 1985 tour reveals a strange collision of pop stardom and communism, a re-edit of Lindsay Anderson’s efforts that got him fired Here is a documentary that has a very important story to tell, maybe more important than it feels comfortable admitting. It’s about two separate subjects – or maybe three: Wham!, China and film-maker Lindsay Anderson. A superpower nervously edging towards western-style openness, a pop band nervously doing what needed to be done to make it big in the US, and a great film director, needing the money, taking on a project he didn’t really believe in. In 1985, Wham!’s beetle-browed manager Simon Napier-Bell had a cunning plan for how George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley could break the US: Wham! would be the first ever western pop band to perform in mainland China. They would play where the Beatles, the Stones and Elvis had never played, and the resulting global publicity would launch them into the US. (He was right – it did.) In our modern ag...
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Its ethically dubious but thats love: The 24-year-old with a brain tumour filming his familys reaction

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When Kit Vincent was told he had terminal cancer, he decided to shoot his parents and girlfriend during his final years – no matter how uncomfortable it made them. The result is an extraordinarily moving film, which premieres in Sheffield on Friday

‘I’m like the grim reaper,” says Kit Vincent at the start of Red Herring. He is filming himself in a mirror, appearing ominously behind his girlfriend Isobel’s back. “No one ever wants to talk about death, but I guess that’s what I remind them of.”

Kit is 24 and has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour. The prognosis is not great: four to eight years, say the doctors. This means some difficult, emotionally raw conversations need to be had with his family. Hard enough in any situation, but especially tough for Kit’s loved ones because he insists on filming them throughout. Whether it’s questions about end-of-life care, discussions of sperm freezing, or live footage capturing him struggling with seizures, no private moment is spared the glare of Kit’s camera, often to the clear discomfort of those closest to him.

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