As a new sidebar to the programme, London-based curators Andrew Hancock and Tani Burns of ARTNAKED have chosen a selection of leading international visual artists working in the media of film to present as a series of ‘Art Shorts’. Submissions were received from around the world, and the final curation comprises an impressive roster of critically appraised and award-winning artworks, alongside several artists who have recently been shown in either art biennales or film festivals globally. All artwork to be shown as part of the ‘ARTNAKED Art Shorts’ series is previously unseen on the Maltese islands. This year’s VFF will include a number of new elements intended to enrich the audience experie

Xiaowen Zhu is a documentary filmmaker, media artist, curator and writer. A master of various mediums, the Shanghai-born and raised artist is currently based in London. Her work has been exhibited in a variety of platforms, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Beijing, China, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, USA, and the Toronto Urban Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. Exploring the complexities behind being an international person and clashing, complimentary and interacting cultural narratives, Zhu became captivated by Kenneth Wong and his little fabric shop, Oriental Silk, based in Los Angeles, USA. From this coincidental meeting, emerged a poignant, beautiful

Marking the UN’s World Refugee Day (20 June) and as part of Spitalfields’ multi-venue celebration of the lives and culture of all immigrant communities, the programme includes Oriental Silk and other artists’ films, shorts and documentaries exploring migrant experience globally. Shadows.’ Originally erected in 1743 as a Protestant Chapel called La Neuve Eglise by French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France, it was briefly acquired in 1809 by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, before becoming a Wesleyan Methodists Chapel in 1819 then changing hands yet again in 1897 when it became the ultra orthodox Machzike Hadath Synagogue, also known as The Spitalfie