After the success of Me And You And Everyone We Know and Thumbsucker, the next high-point in the revival of the American indie-movie is Junebug. Phil Morrison's award-winning film is an awkward comedy set in North Carolina. In the central role is the superb Embeth Davidtz, smiling and charming her in-laws as best she can while staying at the family home with her husband during an art-dealing business trip. A great score by Yo La Tengo and some beautiful cinematography add to a script that is both very funny and able to raise serious questions about morality and cultural differences between America's North and South .

NB: Junebug is released in London on 14/04. Two other films of note are Unknown White Male (currently screening in cinemas) and C.R.A.Z.Y. (released on 21/04).

Manic-depressive outsider, visionary artist, cult indie songwriter and musician, fearless soldier in a personal battle against Satan and #1 fan of Casper The Friendly Ghost -- Daniel Johnston is one of a kind. His cult musical following spread rapidly after being championed by Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits and Sonic Youth, and his comic-book-style, art inspired by Casper and the Silver Surfer and often featuring sinister ducks, counts Matt Groening among its collectors. The tightrope-thin line between his total madness and brilliance is captured in Jeff Feuerzeig's The Devil And Daniel Johnston which won an award at Sundance in 2005. After the screening Johnston will be in concert with guests including Teenage Fanclub and Jason Pierce.

NB: The Devil And Daniel Johnston is released nationwide on 05/05. Lost And Found is released on 01/05 on Sketchbook Records and Hi, How Are You? An Introduction To The Art Of Daniel Johnston is at London's Aquarium Gallery (26/04 till 06/05).

Controversial German artist Martin Kippenberger, currently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Modern, has become an emblem of artistic excess, both in the diversity of his work and through sheer drunken hellraising. Just recently completed for its first UK screening, Kippenberger - Der Film is part of a series of events linked to the exhibition. It is a detailed biography, including rare interviews and film footage, which documents the artist and his work from his wild early years in the Berlin punk scene to the 2003 Venice Biennale, where a ventilation shaft from Kippenberger's global underground system Metro-Net was displayed in the German pavilion.

NB: Kippenberger - Der Film will be screened on Sat 15/04 and Sun 23/04 and the Tate Modern Kippenberger retrospective runs till 14/05.

It's taken centuries, with seven generations of the same family of circus performers, crossed the Mediterranean Sea and Western Europe but at last, here it is! The first UK tour of Taoub, the unique family circus company from Morocco. Breathtaking acrobatics, gravity-defying acts, live Arabic music and traditional songs: immerse yourself in this exotic and sensual Moroccan world. Aurelien Bory, a leading director of French contemporary circus and founder of Compagnie 111 brings wit and humour to these centuries-old Moroccan skills, practised on the beaches of Tangier. To complete the experience, Royal Festival Hall's Easter Delirium also includes a traditional Moroccan market.

NB: Taoub runs from both Fri 14/04 till Tue 18/04 (on Fri 14/04 catch Aurelien Bory as he hosts a 30-minute post show "Meet the Artist" discussion with Collectif Acrobatique de Tangier).

Though fundamentally a painter, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was entranced by the mechanised production of artworks, and he felt that the developing city, with its skyscrapers, factories and geometric shapes, offered new possibilities for works. It's clear that his work had a big influence on the graphic and industrial design of the '60s, but it is his films from the '30s, Light Display: Black-White-Grey, Berlin Still and Big City Gypsies that continue to offer inspiration. Featuring light as the chief protagonist, these mini movies are full of glare, shadows and reflections off machinery, a dizzying kinetic dynamic. Surprisingly, the mainstream did pick him up for his contributions to HG Wells' Things To Come (1936). The future had already arrived.

NB: the screening is introduced by Jan Sahli, lecturer at the University of Zurich and author of a forthcoming book on Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's film work (this event has been programmed in conjunction with the Albers & Moholy-Nagy: From the Bauhaus To The New World exhibition which runs till 04/06).

Easy to forget that despite being a globe-trotting DJ and worldwide ambassador for minimal techno, Richie Hawtin also helps run the m-nus label. His club nights in Detroit have achieved near legendary status, especially when one of them attracted the attention of the local police force. But shockingly, this is the first time a m-nus showcase has been held outside of the US -- part of a 25-date European tour to help promote the forthcoming min2MAX compilation. Whilst Hawtin himself will be the major draw, we reckon the real sonic savouries will come from Heartthrob and Gaiser, who are both performing live. Expect echo-box techno of the highest order and more bass-heavy DJ support from m-nus regulars Magda and Troy Pierce.

NB: for those minimal house / techno fans make sure you catch Akufen and Matthew Dear at Fabric on Sat 15/04 and Superpitcher, DJ Kose and Ferenc at Fabric on Sat 22/02.

Although possibly less known than his compatriots Godard and Truffaut -- but unarguably the longest-lasting French New Wave director with a career spanning 50 years to date -- Jacques Rivette still adheres to the Nouvelle Vague principles of filmmaking. His mysterious, experimental and theatrical works, involving unusual narrative structures and improvisational performances, most often feature his Paris home base as a key character -- notably in Paris nous appartient. The two month season features some rare screenings, including the avant-garde Out 1: Noli me tangere with the full 12 hour version -- unseen for 34 years -- being screened (743 minutes over eight parts), along with the originally unreleased full-length version of L'Amour fou.

NB: runs till 31/05.

Cliched though it undoubtedly sounds, Christy Moore really is a legendary old troubadour, able to look back on a long and fulfilling career. Originally the rabble rousing lead singer of Planxty, Moore always used traditional Irish music as his blueprint from which to build his often simple and beautifully crafted compositions, usually adding slightly rockier and modern elements into the equation. Moore has been performing as a solo artist for decades now, and this weekend his show hits the Barbican. A chance to delve into Moore's extensive back catalogue, and a reminder that this influential artist still retains the performing zeal and magnetism that was present all those many years ago.

NB: Christy Moore performs at the Barbican on Sun 16/04 and Mon 17/04.

David Chipperfield Architects is a multilingual and multicultural practice, employing more than a 100 people from 16 countries (and speaking 22 languages). They are currently working not only with the bfi Film Centre in London and the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, but also with a museum in Alaska, some apartment buildings in Shanghai, a hotel in Amsterdam and the San Michele Cemetery in Venice. Oh, and some 30 other design projects. Completed highlights to date include a redesign of Dolce & Gabbana's worldwide identity, the Bryant Park Hotel in New York and sculptor Antony Gormley's studio in London. Bringing his minimalist ethos to Tate Modern, Chipperfield will speak about the restoration of the Neues Museum in Berlin, a city in which his practice also has an office.

When the monumental box set Holy Ghost was released on John Fahey's Revenant Label in 2004, the inner notes stated: "Albert Ayler heard about more than heard. But that's all about to change." The sound encyclopedia is now coupled with the only film footage of one of the most radical and innovative jazz saxophonists who once infamously announced: "If people don't like it now, they will." Originally from Sweden -- where Ayler recorded his first album -- this is director Kasper Collin's first feature length documentary, premiering in the UK at the ICA and at Glasgow's CCA as part of the Subcurrent festival. This unique and rare film shows footage of early recordings, interviews mainly taken from his late '60s rhythm and blues period. A rare opportunity to see one of Jazz's legends on screen.

NB: Kasper Collin will introduce the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A session, hosted by Wire magazine's editor-in-chief Tony Herrington. Following the cinema event Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) will be DJ-ing in the ICA's bar.

Burning Star Core are so cool, we're afraid that we're not even worthy of mentioning them. Look at that name for example, isn't that one of the coolest band names you've heard of? Even the sole member of the band has a cool name: C Spencer Yeh. His move from modern classicist roots to experimental fields via voice and electronics has resulted in a decade's worth of peerless work. Deconstructing traditional rock frameworks with textural extremities that take in drone, noise and ambient resulted in 2005's astonishing The Very Heart Of The World album on his own Thin Wrist Recordings label. With support from Whitehouse's Philip Best (under his Consumer Electronics guise), Load Record's incredible Prurient and all-girl drum troupe Leopard Leg. Expect Kilburn to be dragged ever closer to the darkness.

C.R.A.Z.Y. has already been a huge hit with its home audience, with at least half the population of Quebec having seen it. The French-Canadian film is a gay-themed coming of age story, tracing three decades in the life of Zac, born on Christmas day 1960. All the major events in Zac's life always come back to his sexuality and the problems this creates for his relationship with his father. The film's ingenious way of linking characters with their favourite music -- the father to Patsy Cline, Zac to Pink Floyd and Ziggy Stardust -- as well as careful attention to period details, great performances, and a painfully full-on depiction of dysfunctional family life makes for a sharp, funny and original memoir of growing up in Montreal.

NB: C.R.A.Z.Y. is released in London 21/04. Two other films of note are Unknown White Male (currently screening in cinemas) and Junebug (released on 14/04).

How heavily do the following play a part in your life: Christianity, optimism, science, economic growth, liberalism and individualism? Yeah, not super heavily at a guess! According to Chris Smith (former Labour MP and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport) and Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle (check out the original principle) these were the building blocks of Western success and we are losing them, fast. With that loss slides our success and this apparently is some kind of "collective suicide". Hmmm. Interesting. So if you don't quite agree, or this worries you a little, join Smith, Koch, Roger Osborne (author of Civilization: A New History Of The Western World) and Jeremy Stangroom (co-founder of The Philosophers' Magazine) and you can all work out what can be done!

A deficiency of light can affect the body in all manner of illusionary and disquieting ways. Living in Tromso, Norway, just above the Arctic Circle, with restricted light and dark all year round, has undoubtedly influenced local Geir Jenssen aka Biosphere in creating his widescreen, atmospheric and episodic music. Fusing Brian Eno with Debussy, Sigur Ros with Morton Feldman, ambient techno of the past with our digital future, Biosphere's music conjures up an out of focus dream in waking. For this evening, he will soundtrack the video work of Cologne's Egbert Mittelstaed, an artist who equally neglects the constraints of narrative and space. Prepare for a night of delusional reverie.

NB: Biosphere also performs at the Greenwich Picturehouse (Fri 21/04) and the Ritzy Cinema (Sat 22/04).

Fridge member Adem Ilhan found his feet as a solo artist and singer with Homesongs in 2004. It was one of the best albums of the year. Love And Other Planets is an exceptional follow-up. Melodic, haunting, plumply acoustic, it sounds like a less whispery Iron & Wine, and shows a willingness to experiment more than others in his genre. Undoubtedly one of the best new British songwriters around. This gig sees him taking that freeform approach to song structure and really letting it go in a live setting. Expect quietly forceful statements with a heart of folk. Icelandic all-girl four-piece bands are pretty thin on the ground, so it's a rare treat to see Amina who are in support. A night of multi-instrument mania.

Carmen Callil is a living literary legend, having founded the independent publishing house Virago in 1972. Catch her here as she talks about her new book In Bad Faith: A Forgotten History Of Family And Fatherland, the story of Vichy Government (not to be confused with the band) villain Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, whose daughter Anne Darquier, a psychiatrist, treated Callil until her own suicide in 1970. This talk will discuss the collective guilt of those who stood by as the Jewish population were "controlled" and explores what happens when you find out your psychiatrist has a dark secret.

The art of short story writing is often said to be disappearing. Pioneered by the likes of Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield and Guy de Maupassant, the genre was once valued for succinct clarity. But, now that fewer magazines publish and publishers favour longer novels, it's hard to find. Fortunately many of our best women writers are still producing brilliant short stories. Don't Know A Good Thing is a new collection of these, published to celebrate ten years of the Asham Award, Britain's only short story prize for new women writers. At this event two of Britain's finest writers, Helen Simpson and Marina Warner, join previous Asham prize-winner Annie Kirby to read their stories and discuss their work with novelist, critic and editor of the book, Kate Pullinger. An inspiring talk for new writers, who know the best way to start is a short story.

Exploring ideas about "fashion as self-expression" is dangerous. It's a high-risk zone for pompous sartorial chat and pretentious social discourse, especially when it comes to discussing one's wardrobe as an idealised projection of the self and a device to attract and charm others. Stephen Willats addressed this problem head-on with his project Multiple Clothing. Running from 1965 to 1998, it was a seminal interactive performance piece where words and sentences (relating to thought, mood and behaviour) were broken down and re-fashioned in situ (using zips and velcro) to make items of clothing (which were then exhibited). This month, Willats discusses his project at the Tate Modern with uber-trendy media and art gurus from London and Berlin. Join in the talks to see what you make of it all.

NB: performance recreations will be staged in public spaces around Tate Modern running between 5 - 7pm.

Despite the misleading name suggesting four freak folkers or a "parenting resource" magazine, Akron/Family is made up of four Brooklyn-based long-bearded talented American country electric singers. Now backing Young God Records founder and Swans frontman Michael Gira as part of Angels of Light, they have been setting some high standards in the current wave of weird pop Americana. Entertaining on stage, the "rural Americans" create a cocktail of alt country, electronic noise and, according to Mr Gira himself, "when they all sing together it's like the goddamn Beatles or Beach Boys or maybe an eerie and twisted version of The Band". The stunning quartet are supported by Londoner's Alexander Tucker solo vocal / guitar noise.

The international currency of boys and their toys is proven at the ICA as it presents the first UK exhibition of Kami-Robo. Brainchild and life work of artist Tomohiro Yasui, a childhood interest in making paper toy wrestling figures has developed into an army of over two hundred figures that partake in a fantastical multi leagued wrestling federation, embodied with complex and nuanced characterisation to rival even the most dramatic of Eastenders scripts. Yasui has successfully negotiated a Peter Pan complex with a surprising commercial appeal through his intriguing creations; his delicately crafted figures carry the weight of personality and the emotional turmoil of a wrestling career despite their 15cm size. In collaboration with Japanese creative agency Butterfly-Stroke, Kami-Robo has gone digital and developed into a fully-fledged computer animation that has captured the Japanese imagination.

NB: Kami-Robo Expo '06 runs till 22/04 (the Butterfly-Stroke retrospective runs till 30/04).

Seamus Heaney says that poetry is a way of linking "external reality and internal dynamic". This path is easy to trace in his poems. Evocative word-scapes and lists of particular physical objects mark the way like milestones, making the poems tangible and affirmatively real. Heaney's first collection in five years, District And Circle, is in part a response to recent global and local violence. The poems make new journeys in subject and style, returning (as he always does) to Heaney's Irish roots. A rare chance to hear the poet known amongst his less-recognised contemporaries as "Famous Seamus".

NB: on 04/05 catch Chuck Palahniuk in the South Bank Centre's Purcell Room.

As minimal house / techno moves away from its reductionist beginnings, it seems that everyone and their laptop are always taking cues from the mighty Kompakt label. This Cologne-based institution has been unfairly lumped with the "minimal" tag, but in reality has always been pursuing a path of tight Germanic pop, their peerless Total and Kompakt Pop series containing more sugar-filled hooks and forbidden love than the pop charts. Tonight's highlight will be Superpitcher. As the best representatives of the darkness of Kompakt, his unique brand of "heroin house" laces a smooth clinical sound with narrative hedonism. With apt support from DJ Koze and Barcelona's excellent Ferenc (live).

NB: for those minimal house / techno fans make sure you catch Akufen and Matthew Dear on Sat 15/04 at Fabric and on Sun 16/04 Richie Hawtin, Magda and Troy Pierce at The Bridge.

Peer Gallery's current exhibition of pioneering film performance artist Anthony McCall features a series of sequential stills in which the progression of projected elements that comprise Between You And I, a new sculptural installation concurrently displayed at the Round Chapel, is plotted at two-minute intervals. Between You And I itself is based on two 12-metre-tall standing forms of "solid light", projected downwards from ceiling to floor. According to McCall: "The luminous membranes of each of the two projections have their own independent rules of motion and change, but over time each gradually takes on the formal properties of the other, while discarding some of its own." The sculptural transformation is enacted in repeating cycles of 32 minutes. During each cycle the two projected forms, in effect, change places. Peer's balletic display of 16 black and white laser prints systematically discloses this performative metamorphosis.

NB: Between You And I runs at the Round Chapel till 23/04 and the prints are on view at Peer till 22/04.

A Swede, born to an Argentine father, Jose Gonzalez is almost predestined to delight in the eclectic. Sure enough, his musical influences are drawn from far and wide: Joy Division, Nick Drake, Brazilian bossa nova, hardcore punk et al... Rather than ranging across styles, however, Gonzalez's music is all about distilling things down to a fine quintessence, wrenching surprising musicality and no little emotion from a clipped, instantly familiar vocal style and liquidly finger-picked Spanish guitar. 2005's Veneer album (Peacefrog) was the sleeper hit of the year (helped by the ubiquity of single "Heartbeats", as heard endlessly on that beautiful "bouncing coloured balls" Sony Bravia TV ad) and his pared-to-the-bone live shows have attracted concomitant critical hyperbole -- hence the grandeur of this venue. Expect a night of plangent bedsit intimacy, nonetheless.

Yet more good stuff from the people over at EYOE as they bring hotly-tipped jazz-rock outfit Battles to the capital's dingy Dingwalls venue. What can we expect from the band, currently enjoying renewed popularity thanks to a high-profile and well-received set of releases on Warp and the patronage of electronic scene darling Kieran Hebden? Battles consists of ex-members of the likes of Helmet and Don Caballero alongside notorious experimental jazz maestro and Prefuse 73 collaborator Tyondai Braxton. Sounds like a dischoate collection on paper; however, the combining elements of cerebral and mathematic rock and jazz elements sit well with hip hop and post-rock influences to complete a unique sound which converts superbly well to the live arena the arena and rarely disappoints.

Kieran Hebden is one busy young man. Not content with helming an ever more fearless litany of electronic albums under his Four Tet alias, he's also a jet-setting avant-DJ, having recently appeared playing guitar for superannuated cult folky Vashti Bunyan and currently making an album with his band Fridge. In between, Hebden has indulged his long time quest to relocate the wild, open-ended spirit of '60s free jazz to the electronic field -- a brave mission documented on the recently released Exchange Sessions Vol 1 (Domino). A live-in-the-studio verite recording, it features Hebden's swirling laptop matrices interleaved with the subtle polyrhythms and fizzing cymbals of veteran soul / jazz drummer Steve Reid. Live, this unlikely marriage promises to be a visceral, propulsive spectacle -- and, if nothing else, it should be an honour to be in the presence of Reid, the man who played drums on Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing In The Street".

NB: support from Six Organs of Admittance and The Thing.

Why can't all the shows in London be this good? Ernesto Tomasini plays every Hollywood archetype as the timeless Sebastian Venable, and in doing so examines how Hollywood treated its gay artists and storylines. There are some we haven't heard of but should have: silent star Alla Nazimova who bankrupted herself in 1925 producing Salome. As Venable tells us "everyone involved in that production was gay". It helps that Tomasini looks like a Hollywood heart-throb and sings like an angel with his amazing four-octave range. When "Rock Hudson dies of Aids" is announced, there should be tears in the audience to go with the appallingly cheerful music. No wonder cabaret was banned in Weimar Germany. When it's done this well, it's fantastically dangerous.

NB: runs till 30/04.

The UK premiere of the first play by acclaimed French writer Marie Ndiaye follows a recent production in New York and further awards for its writer in France. Hilda is the woman hired by Mme Lemarchand, a well-to-do woman (we don't really say bourgeoise in London, do we?) to be her maid (another word that's unfashionable). We never see Hilda; instead, we see Mme Lemarchand negotiating for Hilda with Hilda's husband, while both deteriorate further into their own grotesqueness. Rachel Kavanaugh's production is beautiful and subtle in its handling of contemporary French class attitudes: this is the same territory exposed in recent film Hidden. The revolving structure on stage implies a gilded cage. But without Hilda, the real drama remains outside this play.

NB: runs till 06.05.

No Snow On The Broken Bridge features five recent film and video installations by Yang Fudong, one of the most compelling young artists working in the medium. Based in Shanghai, his seductive, visually arresting works are subtle commentaries on his own generation, and the cultural and personal challenges this generation continues to face as a result of ever more rapid development. Moving through this selection of works is like passing momentarily through entire lifetimes; the shifts between isolation and intimacy, uncertainty and clarity, hope and despair, and past and future are powerfully real. The presentation of the works, too, is immaculate. This is a show not to be missed.

NB: runs till 09/06.

The new exhibition at the V&A is a sprawling affair that is something of a mixed bag, but one worth rifling through. Spanning from the beginning of WWI to the beginning of WWII (somewhat arbitrarily it feels), it attempts to explain Modernism in terms of architecture (Le Corbusier), fashion (Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla), art (Kandinsky, Moholy-Nagy), film (Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Lang) and design -- both social (advertising, Harry Beck's first designs for the Tube) and domestic (kitchens, furniture). There's also an exploration of Modernist attitudes to wellbeing, as well as performance art. Yup, it's huge. The relentless Utopian idealism (using the machine to create a better world -- with mass market, affordable, functional products) sometimes gets a little trying, but this probably comes from underestimating the novelty because the ideas are now so familiar. Smells like success to us. (