Black Cultural Archives Film Season opens at The Ritzy

Friday 1 August, 2014: 

The Stuart Hall Project

The Stuart Hall Project

Image by The Stuart Hall Project


Featuring rarely seen documentary films and shorts spanning five decades of cinema, the evolution of Black culture is examined through the post-war lens of Generation Windrush, the pioneering interventions of Black intellectuals, defiant radicals and grassroots resistance movements of the 60s and 70s, the avant-garde gaze of the 80s Black British arts renaissance, the mediating journeys of Black womanhood and the connecting voices of the African Diaspora.

The BCA Film Season opens at The Ritzy on Friday 15 August with a double-bill screening of CLR JAMES AND STUART HALL IN CONVERSATION followed by John Akomfrah’ s THE STUART HALL PROJECT plus a BCA Q&A hosted by visual culture curator Barby Asante and guests.

The season continues  on Wednesday 20 August with Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal. The screening will be followed  by a BCA Q&A  and ties in with the book launch of ‘Assata: An Autobiography’ - the extraordinary story of Assata Shakur, the FBI’s most wanted woman - which will take place at the BCA on Thursday 21 August.

Lambeth Sustainable Travel and Electric Pedals team up with The Ritzy and the BCA on Friday 29 August to bring a free community pedal-powered screening to the walls of the Black Culture Archives. Black British & Diaspora Shorts  starts at 9.15pm and presents a selection of short films by Black British and African Diaspora filmmakers, thematically inspired by the BCA’s opening exhibition:  ‘Re-imagine: Black Women in Britain’ .The screening will be introduced by Nadia Denton and guests. 

The closing event ‘Race, Resistance, Renaissance’ on Friday 5 September presents a triple-bill of short films and documentaries exploring diverse and explosive portraits of Black British identity and politics, from the 1960s to 1990s.  The screening will be followed by a  Q&A with film curator June Givanni, Director of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive.

The BCA film season  marks the beginning of a collaboration between The Ritzy and The Black Cultural Archive. Paul Reid, Director of the Black Cultural Archives, said: “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Ritzy Picturehouse for a special season of films, documentaries and screen talks. The film season is a fantastic opportunity to work together to screen rarely seen documentaries and shorts; and host a number of Q&A’s with filmmakers and commentators to explore the diversity of Black British and African Diaspora cultures. This is an exciting time for us and it’s great to be to working with the Ritzy Picturehouse to contribute to the cultural offering in Brixton.”

The Ritzy cinema welcomes the new neighbours in Windrush Square and looks forward to developing a lasting relationship with the Black Culture Archives, which will benefit the local and wider community and will contribute to the promotion of black cultural heritage in Britain. 

Clare Binns, Director of Programming and Acquisitions at Picturehouse Cinemas said: "We are delighted to collaborate on this exciting film season at a really great time for the BCA, an organisation which, like The Ritzy, has been a vital part of the fabric of Brixton for years."

BCA Film Season Programme:

Friday 15 August, 6.30pm

STUART HALL Double Bill + Q&A [15]

Duration:150 mins 

Director: John Akomfrah, Mike Dibb

CLR JAMES AND STUART HALL IN CONVERSATION

Dir. Mike Dibb. UK, 1986.

In this rarely captured meeting of iconic academic minds of the Black Diaspora, renowned cultural theorist Stuart Hall meets C. L.R. James. James; a historian, Marxist thinker, political commentator, exponent of cricket, and Brixton resident; recalls his first impression on arrival in London in 1932.

 

THE STUART HALL PROJECT

Dir. John Akomfrah. UK, 2013.

2014 marked the passing of Stuart Hall, one of the most influential and esteemed cultural theorists of a generation. The Jamaican-born public intellectual and co-founder of the New Left Review leaves a pioneering legacy in the field of cultural theory that profoundly reshaped the academic landscape of British cultural studies. Director John Akomfrah delivers an intimate, poetic portrait of Stuart Hall. The film revisits Hall’s life and work through themes of memory, race and identity and weaves an intricate archival collage of socio-political events that defined the latter half of the twentieth century, set against a soundtrack by Hall's favourite musician, Miles Davis.

Wednesday 20 August, 6.30pm

Screening plus BCA Q&A

Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Director: Stephen Vittoria, 2012, USA. 120 Mins]

Stephen Vittoria's painstakingly detailed documentary is a soaring portrait of a man considered by many to be America's most famous political prisoner. Mumia Abu-Jamal - a Black Nationalist and celebrated journalist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer and sentenced to death in a trial marked by racial controversy. Through extensive archival footage, prison interviews, and dramatic commentaries, and aided by a potent chorus of voices including Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Cornel West, this film explores Mumia's life before, during and after Death Row.

Friday 29 August, 9.15pm

Black British & Diaspora Shorts*

Outdoor screening in association with Lambeth Sustainable Travel.

A selection of short films by Black British and African Diaspora filmmakers, thematically inspired by the BCA’s opening exhibition:  ‘Re-imagine: Black Women in Britain’ Welcome/Introduction by Nadia Denton and guests.

 

*Titles to be confirmed. Event Running Time 90 Mins

Friday 5 September, 6.30pm

‘Race, Resistance, Renaissance’ + Q&A

A triple-bill of short films and documentaries exploring diverse and explosive portraits of Black British identity and politics, from the 1960s to 1990s. Screening followed by a Q&A hosted by June Givanni,  Director of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive, Black Film Bulletin Magazine and former director of the African/Caribbean Film Unit at the British Film Institute.

Ten Bob in Winter

Director: Lloyd Reckord, 1963, UK

Jamaican filmmaker, Lloyd Reckord’s comic take on the nuance of West London street life in the early 1960s.

Battle For Brixton: 25 Years On

BBC documentary. UK. Broadcast BBC2, Monday 10thApril 2006

On the 25th anniversary of the Brixton riots, BBC News examines the significance of the events of April 1981 through eyewitness accounts of rioters, police and local residents.

 Le Bohemian Noir et la Renaissance Del Afrique

Amani Naphtali, 1990

In this avant-garde film, Naphtali; theatre director, filmmaker and early affiliate of Soul II Soul artist colective, captures a ‘renaissance moment’ in the Black Arts Movement of late 1980s Camden Town.

PROGRAMME CREDITS/ Acknowledgments

‘Big City Stories’/BlackLondonFilmHeritage.org

British Film Institute National Archive

Suzy Harrison: Lambeth Sustainable Travel

June Givanni: June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive

Nadia Denton: The Black British Filmmaker’s Guide To Success

Barby Asante: South London Black Music Archive

Jan Asante/ Culture Kinetica™: Think Cinematic

Clare Binns, Paul Ridd, Minda Moreira:  Ritzy Cinema / Picturehouse Cinemas

For more information about the Black Cultural Archives, please contact Monique Brown:

 

monique@bcaheritage.org.uk

Black Cultural Archives 

Black Cultural Archives is a national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. Founded in 1981, the Black Cultural Archives’ heritage centre is the first of its kind and our unique collection includes rare historical documents, photographs, ephemera, oral history testimonies and an eclectic range of objects dating from the second century to the present day. Many artefacts have fascinating stories that contribute to the historical narrative of British people. Our work recognises the importance of broader historical narratives and promotes dialogue that encourages everyone to learn, explore and become inspired by a shared British history. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and London Borough of Lambeth.

For more information on the Black Cultural Archives visit www.bcaheritage.org.uk 

Twitter: @bcaheritage

 


RITZY CINEMA

Awarded Best Neighbourhood Cinema in London in 2006, 2009 and 2010, the Ritzy Picturehouse is one of the most successful local cinemas south of the river. 

 

Five screens, a music and events venue / bar (UPSTAIRS AT THE RITZY) and a café/restaurant, support a programme of both independent and wider release films backed up by regular Opera, Theatre and Ballet broadcasts, weekly Parents and Baby screenings, Kids' Club and Toddler’s screenings, Autism-Friendly screenings, Students screenings, Late Night screenings , a regular schools programme and a host of one-off events

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