As dusk began to set on June 26th, only a few days after the summer solstice, 250 people filed into St Giles’ Church for an evening of pagan-friendly merriment. The first great London heatwave had finally broken, and inside the cooling stone of the Gothic hall, summer held its breath. As people grabbed ciders, took their seats, and the last few guests slipped through the heavy doors, the church filled with the live folk performance of Painted Bird. This was the spellbinding prelude to the much-awaited main act – a screening of horror cult classic The Wicker Man (1973).
A beloved classic of British folk horror, The Wicker Man follows a devout Christian policeman as he investigates the disappearance of a young girl on a remote Scottish island. What begins as a conventional procedural soon slips into something far more unsettling, as the mystery unravels through a disturbing, psychological lens. The cinematography is stunning, capturing the island’s sun-drenched landscapes on rich 35mm film, while the exploration of sensuality, tradition, and zealotry still resonates today. It was a perfect June pick from Secret Ceremony, the team behind this marvellous screening.
Over coffee with Nina-Sophia Miralles and Maya Sall – the brilliant minds behind Secret Ceremony – they tell me all about the running of their film club: the rituals, the curation, the community. A project of Lost Art Media (the magazine founded by Nina-Sophia), it all began as a post-Covid venture, born at a time when the craving for connection was at its peak and a new wave of spiritual curiosity had taken hold online. With this in mind, Secret Ceremony designed a screening series inspired by the seven chakras, beginning with red and working their way up the body. Their first event set the tone: a screening of The Love Witch (2016), a film drenched in blood, beauty, and romance. To deepen the sensory experience, Nina-Sophia’s own mother offered tarot readings on-site – an activity so popular it clogged up the traffic into the cinema room.
The pair tell me that what truly matters in organising these screenings is that they spark conversation, foster community, and, above all, offer a sense of fun. Movie-going has always been a social ritual, but we all know it is now threatened by the advent of streaming sites and our increasingly isolationist society. What Secret Ceremony proposes is a spin on the formula, encouraging audiences to rediscover how films can bring people together.
Their chakra-themed season continued successfully, drawing in both curious newcomers and loyal returners. But, as they admit, it was sometimes a headache to align each film not only with the chakra’s corresponding colour, but also with the emotional or symbolic themes it represents. Scrolling through their archive of past screenings, it’s clear just how successfully they pulled it off. A few standouts: To Catch a Thief (1955), screened inside a diamond boutique for the yellow chakra, and Blue Velvet (1986) for the blue chakra, where the best-dressed attendee won a (fake) human ear.
Eventually, the chakra season came to an end, now replaced by a new series inspired by the Tarot’s Major Arcana. Their June screening of The Wicker Man was aptly paired with The Sun card – a symbol of vitality, clarity, and revelation, all of which echo through the film’s radiant visuals and unsettling unmaskings.
The incredible setting inside St Giles’ Church, they tell me, was serendipitously suggested by the neighbouring record store Dash the Henge. If there was any hesitation about pitching a pagan folk horror to be screened in a Christian church, it was quickly dispelled. St Giles’ only firm boundary? No vampire films.
Secret Ceremony returns this September with the next instalment in their Tarot season, this time turning their gaze to The Wheel of Fortune. With a particularly niche pick, they’ll be screening Endless Poetry (2016), directed by cult auteur and mystic visionary Alejandro Jodorowsky. Described as an ode to fate, creativity, and the wild surrender to life’s unpredictability, the film perfectly embodies the card’s themes of movement, chance, and transformation. In true Secret Ceremony fashion, the screening will also feature a live poetry performance – full details still under wraps. For those ready to roll the dice and step back into the ritual, the wheel is turning once again.