With no single protagonist or linear narrative, the film immerses the viewer in a spectacle of strength through an intimate portrait of bodybuilders in the slums of Lagos. Inflated muscles, bulging veins and luminous skin glistening with sweat fill the screen. Shot almost entirely in close-ups, the camera hovers so near its subjects, moving softly like breath on skin, that at times figures become blurred, abstracted forms.
Karimah Ashadu’s slow, measured pans across backs, chests and arms meditate on visibility, drawing attention to the embodiment and representation of the Black male body without rendering it singular or fixed. The metallic clang of barbells is punctuated with guttural sounds of exertion set against the ambience of the streets. Breath and muscle move in syncopated sonic choreography, and the men’s commitment to the ritual of maintaining the body is evident.
Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Forum Expanded - International Premiere
A poignant and poetic exploration of the rise and decline of Luton’s once vibrant Caribbean culture. Through intimate personal stories, rich historical context, and a cultural lens, the film traces how a thriving legacy rooted in migration, music, resistance, and community has been gradually eroded over the years.
From the golden days of sound system culture and bustling youth clubs to the bouncing spirit of Luton Carnival formerly Europe’s largest one day Caribbean carnival, the film reflects on how these vital cultural institutions have been systematically dismantled through decades of underfunding, neglect, and shifting priorities.
These weren’t just events or social spaces, they were expressions of identity and anchors of community.
With vignettes/reenactments shot on 16mm film and interwoven with candid communal conversations, this documentary offers a poetic and thought provoking insight and invites audiences from all backgrounds to engage in deeper reflection on the value of heritage and the fragility of community spaces.
The film ends on the question of: How do communities reclaim their space, their voice, and their future?
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025
This film follows the growth of the Afrocentric Black is Beautiful movement of the 60s and 70s through the lens of Kwame Brathwaite, pioneering Harlem photographer and its unsung godfather.
Kwame Brathwaite spent his life documenting black American history, photographing and befriending some of its biggest stars over his lifetime. He also founded grassroots fashion shows he called "Naturally" that celebrated natural black beauty and Afrocentrism in a time when it was deemed controversial, and heralded a new dawn for blackness across the globe.
Forgotten by history until his son uncovered his vast archive of photos in the 2010s, the film covers the revival of Kwame's legacy in the last few years of his life. Family, friends and artistic admirers championed Kwame's work in a bid to put his name on the map before his passing in 2023. Kwame's story weaves together the story of the black experience, cultural icons and activism, taking a Forrest Gump journey through the biggest names and moments in American culture.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Official Competition - World premiere
Official Selection DOC NYC 2025
In this South Asian team sport, players repeating ‘kabaddi’ frantically cross boundaries on the court, tagging their opponents before returning.
Ka ba Ddi is a high-energy team sport originating in South Asia played between two teams of seven players on a divided court. Players respond to boundaries, bodies think in relation to each other: lines of the court, focal points for players movements. Stretching back into their own territory; a vocabulary of movement that make connections with what is happening in the wider world, in domestic UK politics but also internationally. Territory has never felt so terrifying or so contested. The rules based order of Kabaddi stipulates that one team sends a single "raider" into the opposing team's territory, the aim is to tag/touch as many players as possible from the opposing side before retreating back into your own territory. Rules govern our bodies, we live in a series of ever increasing courts both materially and ideologically.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Short Film Competition
A Jamaican mother in London uses a traditional meal to reconnect with her sons before their Caribbean roots are lost to their new English life.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - World premiere
Kemi, a Nigerian mother in London, believes her deaf daughter Sola can be cured through a pastor’s ritual. Torn between her son Yomi’s frustration, family pressures, and her own doubts, Kemi struggles with faith, tradition, and the complexity of a mother’s love.
Official Selection Dinard Festival of British & Irish Films 2025
A poetic and visually rich love letter to water, sisterhood, and the resilience of Black women across generations.
The film follows three generations of Black British women, from an Olympic trailblazer to a 54-year-old first-time swimmer, in a lyrical celebration of joy, sisterhood and resilience.
Official Selection DOC NYC 2025
Mr X has been in state care most of his life. He builds extraordinary structures out of found objects. As he prepares to leave hospital, his objects become space vehicles to travel across society’s boundaries. He builds for us a vision of his new life.
Official Selection Women X Film Festival 2025
Ten days before the millennium, Hope, a single mother, arrives in London with her two infants, clutching only the clothes on their backs. Escaping a haunted past, she seeks refuge in a city gripped by Y2K paranoia. A charismatic stranger offers sanctuary, but as Hope navigates an uncertain future in unfamiliar streets, she uncovers his chilling motives. The threat to her family dwarfs the feared technological collapse. In a pulse-pounding race against time, Hope must protect her children at any cost, no matter the
personal sacrifice.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Short Film Competition
Quinn, a sexually confident young woman of mixed-race ancestry, struggles to find her footing in London after her mother’s death. On impulse, she decides to travel to South Africa in search of her estranged father, but when she fails to find him, her journey begins to reflect the reckless patterns of her London life. An unexpected turn leads to a chance encounter with charismatic South African, Harley. Offering her a ride into the outback, Harley pulls Quinn into an adventure that sweeps them from Cape Town’s electric nightlife to the vast, untamed rural heartlands, to confront both external dangers and the deep-seated prejudices of the locals. As they navigate the twists and tensions of the journey, Quinn and Harley form an unbreakable bond, realising that the answers they were searching for had been within them all along. A tale of self-discovery, resilience, and the unexpected roads that lead us home.
Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 - World premiere
