Documenting Ghanaian housing activist Dora Boatemah and the Angell Town community in Brixton, London fighting for better housing conditions. Central to Boatemah's work was the right of tenants to vote on the future of their own estates. Dora died in 2001 at the age of 43.
Official Selection Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018 - World premiere
Figure is a film about boys growing up without fathers. It explores how early detachment from a father figure affects emotional growth and engagement with the world. Through a fusion of physical theatre and hip-hop dance, it follows two young men as they search for answers outside and inside themselves.
A mixed-race child, Marvin Rees grew up in Bristol's ghettos in the UK with prostitution, violence and poverty on a daily basis. Ever since, Marvin had the desire to go against the injustices he experienced and decides to run for mayor.
As a complete amateur, he steps into the world of politics. Despite his charisma and intellect, his biggest battle is believing anyone will take this black guy from the ghetto serious.
In a tight race, he must accept his loss in front of rolling cameras. Though feeling personally ashamed, losing has even a greater significance as the city carries a history of exclusion and racism.
Bristol was part of the slave trade, was struck by a civil rights movement in the 1960's inspired by Martin Luther King and had the black youth revolting in the 1980's, which caused a nationwide riot. Today it is the increasing fear of muslims that shatters the city.
Despite his doubts, Marvin decides to run again. More professional, stronger and with the vital support of the muslim community. Will he manage to break the circle of history and become the first mayor of African decent of a city in Europe?
'The Third Part of the Third Measure' creates an encounter with the militant minimalism of avant-garde composer, pianist and vocalist Julius Eastman. The two-channel video installation focuses on what The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun) describe as an “experience of watching in the key of listening”, invoking political feelings of defiance and the collective practice of movement building that participates in the global struggles against neoreactionary authoritarianism. Their work invites viewers to attend to exemplary ecstatic aesthetics of black radicalism that Eastman himself once described as “full of honor, integrity and boundless courage”. (Berlinale brochure)
Official Selection Berlinale 2018 - Forum Expanded Exhibition - "A Mechanism Capable of Changing Itself" - Group exhibition at Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg
A young woman visits home and just as she's about to ring the bell, the aroma of food evokes a powerful memory which takes her back to her childhood and it also reminds her of her fabricated past.
Official Selection Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018 - World premiere
Exploring the magic and dynamism of Blackness in a realm where time and space are altered. The now, the past and the future are rethought and reordered to create something soulful and mindbendingly visceral.
Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She “was the first…” as former husband Miles Davis said. “Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince”. An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the '70s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named “Bitches Brew”. She then, despite being banned and boycotted, went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself.
Betty was a feminist pioneer, inspiring and intimidating in a manner like no woman before. Then suddenly - she just vanished. Betty Mabry Davis is a global icon whose mysterious life story has until now, never been told. Creatively blending documentary, animation and nonfiction techniques, this movie traces the path of Betty’s life, after years of trying, the elusive Betty, forever the free-spirited Black Power Goddess, finally allowed the filmmakers to creatively tell her story based on their conversations.
Official Selection IDFA 2017 - World premiere
An ensemble slice of life in a diner, where rap lyrics become part of the drama.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Create Strand - World premiere
'Relic 1' forms part of Larry Achiampong's Relic Traveller: Phase 1, a multi-disciplinary project manifesting in performance, audio, moving image and prose.
Taking place across various landscapes and locations, the project builds upon a postcolonial perspective informed by technology, agency and the body, and narratives of migration.
