Cultra e-Diary: Weekend Edit…Things to do now July and beyond: Rockets and Blue Lights, Keeping up with Kassandra: The Surrogate: MIF2021: Romeo & Juliet and more

Hello there…… we are busy with the noise of UEFA EURO 2020 in the background reminding us of the new normal and the possibilities of everything!! Windrush Day has just gone and the UK events calendar is full and looking really exciting even more exciting are the events we have partnered with: you know how much we love film here. For the second year we are working with the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival and The Black Lens Film Festival (Black Cultural Archives) both looking at Black cinema content with a fresh and innovative lens..ALT has also partnered with Genesis Cinema to do a special Preview screening of The Surrogate starring Jasmine Batchelor (Black female lead), we are working with Manchester International Festival highlighting the diversity at the event: and we have some great interviews lined up. So check out what we have curated for your inbox in this monthly newsletter…

LAST Chance. Ticket giveaway from our friends at The BUSH THEATRE win two tickets get discounted tickets for £10!! Enjoy..Team ALT A REVIEW………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Kassandra can see into the future…can her millions of followers believe her?
Only 5 more performances!
Kassandra is a Nigerian princess turned reality TV star with a social conscience. She has hot pepper to share with the world, but can the world take the heat? Performed live online, this new production by Funlola Olufunwa shakes up ancient myths, pop music, social media culture and even Barbie, and gives us a wahala-filled future fable.
Brought to you by Creation Theatre, who perform in extraordinary locations…and from March 2020 became known for their strikingly innovative use of digital performance tools to perform LIVE theatre online. Watch the trailer here.
Keeping up with Kassandra was written for the digital stage in response to conversations with researchers at Oxford’s Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, it explores pertinent themes facing humanity asking “What if you could see the future but no one believed you?”
Don’t miss this one! BOOK TICKETS WATCH writer, Funlola Olufunwa, talk about the play – here

The Windrush Caribbean Film Festival #WCFF2021 – Online Film Festival hosted on CaribbeanTales-TV! June 22 – August 29, 2021

PARTNER PROMO: HAVE YOU GOT YOUR TICKETS FOR THE WINDRUSH CARIBBEAN FILM FESTIVAL 2021 : TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!! BOOK HERE Explore Windrush Arts, online, on-demand with a special focus on Carnival Arts including Music, Mas, Costumes, Photography and more. Join for 30+ Films, Live Screenings, Q&As, Workshops, Conversations with Artists, Masterclasses and more! GET YOUR FESTIVAL PASS HER FIND OUT MORE https://windrushfilmfestival.com/ ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. SIGN UP TO THE CULTRA e-DIARY HERE

Partner event: Manchester International Festival returns 1-18 July with vibrant programme of original new work from across spectrum of visual and performing arts and music by artists from over 20 countries

With almost all the work created in the past year, MIF21 provides a unique snapshot of these unprecedented times. Artists have reflected on ideas such as love and human connections, the way we play, division and togetherness, equality and social change, and the relationship between the urban and the rural. A rich online offer will provide a window into the Festival wherever audiences are, including livestream broadcasts and films, work created especially for the digital realm, and backstage access and insight into how the Festival was created. Available on-demand from 15 July, Notes On Grief is a theatrical adaptation of a beautiful tribute, written in the New Yorker in 2020 by the acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to the father she loved ‘so much, so fiercely, so tenderly’. Director Rae McKen takes Adichie’s words and transfers them to the stage in this new production: a space for those who have experienced loss to gather and reflect, and a powerful and timely MIF21 world premiere. Broadcast live on Saturday 17 July on mif.co.uk, Homecoming Live is a one-night showcase of the most exciting music from Africa, the diaspora and beyond – with Nigerian Afrorave star Rema and hotly tipped Afrobeat act Midas the Jagaban performing live, a set from Manchester-based DJ–producer Anz, and Julie Adenuga hosting on the night. A selection of images from Cephas Williams’ latest portraiture project, Portrait of Black Britain, will be available to view online while the work is exhibited in Manchester’s Arndale Centre. This is the first phase of a project that will ultimately lead to Cephas Williams building the largest collection of photographic portraits of Black British people ever created. Streaming live on 10 and 17 July, MIF’s talks and discussions programmeLooking Forward to Tomorrow will explore some of the big issues of the day including the climate emergency and anti-Black racism with a range of speakers, including artists, activists, key workers, campaigners and members of the Greater Manchester community. And premiering online at the Festival this year, Postcards from Now presents five distinct perspectives from leading international artists of every stripe – choreographers, musicians, visual artists, theatre-makers, animators and more. Commissioned and created at the height of the global lockdown, these five films explore everything from community to communication, patriarchy to power. And in very different ways, they consider the question that we’ve all been asking ourselves and others: what happens next? Explore the full programme online and in-person at mif.co.uk. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. THE SURROGATE (PREVIEW) + Q&A – ALT-AFRICA & Genesis Cinema July 7th 6:30pm

Jess Harris (Jasmine Batchelor, The Good Fight), a 29-year-old web designer for a non-profit in Brooklyn, is ecstatic to be the surrogate and egg-donor for her best friend Josh (Chris Perfetti, Looking) and his husband Aaron (Sullivan Jones, Parks and Recreation). Twelve weeks into the pregnancy, a prenatal test comes back with unexpected results that pose a moral dilemma. As they all consider the best course of action, the relationship between the three friends is put to the test. UK release date: July 9th 2021 BOOK HERE ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Museum of London acquires ensemble inspired by the creativity of the Windrush generation

The Museum of London has acquired an ensemble from London fashion designer Tihara Smith’s ‘Windrush collection’ along with a suit owned by her grandfather. Both pieces, and oral histories recorded for the museum by Tihara, her mother and her grandfather have been made available to explore on the Museum of London website to mark Windrush Day 2021. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… BOOKING NOW: Starring Alfred Enoch best known for playing Wes Gibbins in How To Get Away With Murder (ABC).

Partner: Black Lens Film Festival Opening Night – UK Premiere: How to Stop a Recurring Dream July 16th at BFI Southbank

Black Lens Festival Opening Night – UK Premiere:: How to Stop a Recurring Dream + Q&A with director Ed Morris and actor Ruby BarkerReleased in 2021. Dir Ed Morris. With Ruby Barker, Lily-Rose Aclandogdu, Jamie Michie, Miranda Nolan. 82min. Family tensions become a battlefield in this high-octane thriller about a young woman who abducts her younger sister in the face of an imminent family break-up. Rising Star Ruby Barker (Bridgerton) shines in the lead role, as the deeply troubled Yakira. In partnership with Black Cultural Archives. Black Lens Film Festival 2021 celebrates new Black filmmaking talent with screenings and events. BLFF2021 opens on 16th July and is programmed in partnership with alt-africa.com BOOK TICKETS

Newsbite: Rockets and Blue Lights come to the National Theatre directed by Miranda Cromwell

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On the set of a new film about Victorian artist JMW Turner, young actress Lou is haunted by an unresolved history. Meanwhile, in 1840 Londoners Lucy and Thomas try to come to terms with the meaning of freedom. Moving between London past and present, we embark on a powerfully personal voyage through time. Directed by Miranda Cromwell, and first staged at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, this astonishing and fiercely political new play by Winsome Pinnock was named winner of the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award.

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