Barbican, London
From Cuba to Mexico, from Hong Kong to Iraq, the Belgian artist has made 40 mesmerising films of kids at play, including three with guns up to no good in a war zone

Cries and laughter, clapping and calls and screams of delight fill the gallery. There are children everywhere on the multiple screens that fill the lower floor. Kids in Cuba careen round the streets of Havana on precarious trolleys fashioned from bits of wood and discarded junk. They rattle and slew on cobbles and jink round corners, under the amused and indulgent eyes of adults as they come hurtling past. The game is both exhilarating and frightening to watch, the young pilots and passengers inches away from hideous injury. Talk about health and safety.

Little girls on a London housing estate swipe at each other’s conkers in a game that’s been largely banished from British school playgrounds. Of course, there’s a lot more to the culture of conkers than whacking horse chestnuts on a bit of string. How careful you have to be – preparing the conker, drilling it and threading it on to a string. All games, like art, have their rules and conditions.

She’s the subject of a new documentary, has just announced her farewell tour, and is about to play Glastonbury. The singer and songwriter discusses Trump, resilience and why she hated being pitted against Madonna

Once you’ve had a feature-length documentary made about you, it’s surely time to accept you’ve reached legendary status? Cyndi Lauper laughs. “My dogs don’t think so,” she says, to the sound of barking. Then, to her dogs: “You gotta stop, guys!”

Lauper is the subject of Let the Canary Sing, a new film by Alison Ellwood. It follows Lauper from her difficult childhood with an abusive stepfather, through the New York music scene and early bands, to the release of feminist anthem Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and beyond. There are clashes with music execs who don’t understand Lauper’s art school sensibility and want her to compete with Madonna, and she survives a career downturn. More recently, Lauper has become a campaigner, and the writer of award-winning musicals.

When Naissa tells his mother Daniela that he identifies as a trans man she struggles to understand. Through candid personal letters exchanged over three years, Dear Mamma follows Naissa as he stands firmly for his independence and identity, and Daniela as she wrestles with her fear of losing a child. As Naissa embarks on his professional dance career and proudly embodies his gender, his mother also embarks on a journey of understanding and acceptance of her son’s choices

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