The Bang Straws

Director: Michelle Williams Gamaker

Year: 2017

Revisiting the audition process for the character of Kanchi in Powell and Pressburger’s 1947 'Black Narcissus'. The coveted role went to actor Jean Simmons. By auditioning only Indian ex-pat or first-generation British Asian women and non-binary individuals, filmmaker Michelle Williams Gamaker re-casts a Kanchi for the 21st Century, who crucially speaks.

Director: Konadu Gyamfi

Year: 2023

Konadu Yiadom Gyamfi takes a poetry-led journey through Ghana and the experience of female welder Stella A true story captured through poetry, director and poet Konadu Yiadom Gyamfi follows the journey of Stella, a female welder from Uganda. Shot in Ghana, the film showcases the profound impact of faith in guiding her towards success in a world that often challenges her path as a woman. “There are so many diverse and captivating stories to be explored within this beautiful and complex continent but we don’t often hear the stories of women from their own mouths. Platforming stories like Stella’s is how we start moving forward in portraying Africa and its people.” Defying expectations through her resilience and passionate dedication to her craft, Stella transcended early challenges she faced by entering into a program for young women, now a working welder in spite of societal beliefs regarding women’s roles. Evolving over several months of close collaboration between Stella and Gyamfi, the film illustrates Stella's life and the local landscape through insightful conversations tracing her path into welding, lensing a remarkable reality that confronts narratives on African women that strip away their agency.

Director: Helen Anna Flanagan

Year: 2022

A woman muses on what it is to fall. To fall flat, heavily in love, deep into sleep, or into a holiday pool that time on a faraway Greek Island at 2am. Waves keep crashing, summoning Deeply, Madly as an obsession with moments of being mid-motion — bodies, emotions and time that all succumb to gravitational forces. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023 Official Selection Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2023