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Diversity at Raindance. What to watch and how to watch it…

Diversity at Raindance. What to watch and how to watch it…

Beans:

One girl’s inner conflict as she comes to terms with two contradictory identities: her Mohawk ancestry with its long history of violent oppression and the comfortable upper-middle class existence we see her experience at the start of the film…

29/10/21 21:00 @ Curzon Hoxton or 30/10-1/11 Home Cinema

Hostile:

Hostile explores the UK’s complicated relationship with the migrant communities that form the backbone of our society. Through their eyes, we look at the history and the impact of the government’s evolving “Hostile Environment” policies, which target migrants and raise the question of what it means to be British today…

29/10/21 18:20 @ Curzon Hoxton or 30/10-1/11 Home Cinema

Youth v Gov: 

The documentary blends the personal and political to great effect. As it charts the relationship between government and fossil fuel industry, it also spotlights the young people themselves as they discuss worsening health conditions, homes destroyed by extreme weather and, most vividly, the fear they feel when they think about the future of the planet…

29/10/21 20:00 @ Genesis or 30/10-1/11 Home Cinema

Shorts – Guardian Picks:

Black Cop –  The Black Cop is a docu-drama exploring one former police officer’s experience of being both victim and perpetrator of racism in the police force…

Sindicat – On the borders of Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat is one of the most densely populated cities in the EU and home to a large migrant community…

The Return – A family in the Ecuadorian Amazon has opted to move deeper into the relative safety of the jungle. As news spreads that Ecuador might lift its lockdown, the question is: will the family stay?

All: 30/10/21 15:30 @ Curzon Soho

Smuggling Hendrix:

Yiannis (Adam Bousdoukos) plans to leave Cyprus for a better life in Europe, but his dog Jimi has crossed the UN buffer zone separating the Greek from the Turkish side of the island. As it is impossible to bring him back legally, Yiannis must find another way to smuggle Jimi back to the Greek Cypriot area…

29/10/21 20:00 @ Genesis or 30/10-2/11 Home Cinema

White Noise:

White Noise tracks the rise of far-right nationalism by taking the viewer into the terrifying heart of the American alt-right movement. White Noise shows us explosive protests, riotous parties, and the private spaces where populist and racist ideologies are refined and weaponised…

30/10/21 18:00 @ Bertha Doc House or 30/10-2/11 Home Cinema

White Noise Directed by Daniel Lombroso

Listen:

On the outskirts of London, a Portuguese couple are struggling financially. When a misunderstanding arises at school over their deaf daughter, the British social services grow concerned for the safety of the children. Listen portrays the tireless battle of these immigrant parents as they struggle to keep their family together…

30/10 /21 18:00 @ Curzon Hoxton or 30/10-2/11 Home Cinema

Ascension:

Ascension is an impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through staggering observations of labour, consumerism and wealth…

31/10/21 20:50 @ Curzon Hoxton

Carving The Divine:

A documentary film that offers a rare look into the 1400-year-old Buddhist woodcarving tradition and the practitioners struggling to preserve its legacy in a rapidly changing Japan. The film provides profound insight into the Japanese psyche as well as the nature of human perseverance through suffering…

2/11/21 14:20 @ Genesis

Shorts – Mysterious World:

Nsenene – The night sky in the Ugandan town of Masaka is punctured by eerie green light, the whine of electricity and insects buzzing…

Saudade – Narrated entirely in Kristang, the film reimagines the rituals of the early Eurasians, telling a story of loss and the displacement of a culture, and consequently its language…

Spirits and rocks: an Azorean Myth – A volcanic island, where the inhabitants are caught in an unending cycle. The threat of impending eruptions and the burden of past traumas loom over them…

Yusef and Ramiro – 

The night sky in the Ugandan town of Masaka is punctured by eerie green light, the whine of electricity and insects buzzing…

All: 2/11/21 15:40 @ Curzon Soho

Shorts – Best Music Video:

Don’t Judge Me – A comment on the experience of being black and British, featuring FKA Twigs and Headie One alongside activists, writers, and cultural figures. Everyone’s experience is different, yet all share a struggle against an invisible oppressor – propagated by cultural, systemic, and structural biases – hard to see and even harder to overcome…

Foreplay – With a bright and expressive colour palette mixed with a rhythm and blues soundtrack, Delia Simonetti’s promo for David Blank and PNKSAND’s Foreplay is a gorgeous celebration of Afro-Italian and queer communities in Milan…

Monsters You Made – Nigerian musician Burna Boy’s video for the track Monsters You Made, from his Grammy-winning album Twice As Tall. Chris Martin of Coldplay appears on this song, which focuses on how systemic racism and inequality lead to trauma and violence and shows images of racial injustice in both Africa and America…

T.I.N.A – Enter Shikari’s song T.I.N.A. uses Margaret Thatcher’s famous phrase “there is no alternative” to reference the short-sightedness of the contemporary political landscape…

Tesfay – Witch Prophet uses dance, narrative and documentary to tell the story of Witch Prophet’s late grandfather, Tesfay, who raised five daughters as a single father in Ethiopia…

All: 2/11/21 16:50 @ Genesis

Take Me to The River:

Celebrates the rich musical history, legacy and influence of New Orleans and Louisiana. A true collaboration and melting pot of influences from around the World, that came together and formed one of the world’s most unique cultural jewels…

2/11/21 18:30 @ The May Fair Hotel

The Welder:

2/11/21 21:00 @ Genesis

They find themselves in a fight for their lives as they attempt to elude the demented racial experiments of a mad doctor. Explores true horror of racial division…

The Welder Directed by David Liz
 

Oscar Micheaux – The Superhero of Black Filmmaking:

The pioneering filmmaker Oscar Micheaux is the subject of a documentary that celebrates the first African American to produce a feature film by black people for black people…

See Also

2/11/21 21:00 @ Curzon Hoxton or 3/11-5/11 Home cinema

Shorts – Reckless Sensations:

Binge Loving – A Brussels detective is ordered by a client to follow her husband because she suspects he has a mistress in the capital. When she forces herself into the investigation, the detective is taken out of his comfort zone. Binge Loving is a neo-noir about fragile souls seeking (self) love…

3/11/21 16:20 @ Curzon Hoxton

Subjects of Desire:

Told from the perspective of women who aren’t afraid to challenge conventional beauty standards and featuring footage from the 50th Anniversary of the Miss Black America Pageant, Subjects of Desire is a culturally significant, provocative film that deconstructs what we understand about race and the power behind beauty…

3/11/21 18:00 @ Curzon Hoxton or 4/11 Home Cinema

Children of the Enemy:

When the authorities turn their backs on the children of deceased European ISIS fighters, Chilean-Swedish grandfather Patricio Galvez must start a one-man campaign to rescue his seven orphaned grandchildren from a Syrian detention camp and bring them home…

3/11/21 21:00 @ Genesis or 4/11-6/11 Home Cinema

Children of the Enemy Directed Gorki Glaser-Müller
 

Shorts – Animation 1:

Stationary Peaceful Protest – A collaboration between BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018 winner Xhosa Cole and animator Shiyi Li. Following Xhosa’s spoken narration and music, Shiyi uses abstract geometric shapes, animations and symbolism to illustrate his experience attending the Birmingham Black Lives Matter March in 2020…

4/11/21 15:40 @ Curzon Soho

My Sunny Maad:

When a young Czech woman marries an Afghan man and relocates to Kabul, her perception of a woman’s role in society changes forever. My Sunny Maad examines the culture clash between those who still abide by the old patriarchal rules and those who would like to see a change…

4/11/21 18:20 @ Curzon Soho or 5/11-7/11 Home Cinema

Shorts – Relative States:

Abeba – A baby girl is left by her parents in a car park…

Al-Sit – In a cotton farming village in Sudan, fifteen-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker. Her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad, and Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future… 

All: 5/11/21 15:40 @ Curzon Soho

Shorts – Queer:

BABA – Rejected by his family and oppressed by his country for his queerness, Libyan teenager Britannia gets an interview at the British Embassy…

Chocolate Milk – Chocolate Milk is an intimate look at how a young black girl processes the sting of being othered by her peers for her non-traditional family…

All: 6/11/21 14:30 @ Curzon Soho

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