Film Programme for Do you remember Olive Morris?
Saturday 21st November 2009 - Sunday 24th January 2010
SUNDAY SCREENINGS
All screenings are free and no booking is required.
4pm Sunday 22 November
Pressure (1975), dir. Horace Ové, 120 min.
Pressure explores the assimilation of Caribbean people into British society and the tensions between the first and second generation of immigrants. Through the story of a London teenager who joins the Black Power movement in the 1970s, Pressure addresses police brutality and highlights the differences that exist inside the movement.
4pm Sunday 29 November
Babylon (1980), dir. Franco Rosso, 91 min.
Babylon tells the story of a young Rastafarian toaster (rapper) who hopes to rise above daily-life struggles and to succeed in a Sound System competition. Set in Lewisham during the Thatcher era, the film presents a portrait of inner-city Black youth and their dreams and fears.
4pm Sunday 6 December - Double Bill
Baldwin's Nigger (1969), dir. Horace Ové, 48 min.
Baldwin's Nigger is a striking portrait of James Baldwin, one of America's most powerful novelists and spokesman for a generation. The film records a meeting between Baldwin – who is accompanied by comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory – and a radical group of West Indian students in London in late 1969. Baldwin and his audience compare the black experience in America and Britain, dissect the role of the white liberal, and look to the explosions in their own communities for the answers.
Dread, Beat an’ Blood (1979), dir. Franco Rosso, 45 min.
A portrait of Jamaican-born poet, writer and musician Linton Kwesi Johnson, and of the Brixton community where he has lived and worked. The film intercuts poetry readings, recordings and interviews, as well as footage of street riots and demonstrations, including one in Bradford where the crowd chant some of Johnson's verses.
4pm Sunday 13 December
Born in Flames (1983), dir. Lizzie Borden, 90 min.
A documentary style, feminist science fiction film exploring racism, sexism, classism and heterosexism in the USA. The film follows two feminist groups – one led by an outspoken white lesbian and the other by a soft-spoken African American – which begin to organise a women's revolution through the airwaves of their pirate radios in New York City.
4pm Sunday 10 January - Double Bill
From You Were Black, You Were Out (2008), dir. Colin Prescod, 38 min.
Set in Notting Hill in the 1950s, from the emergence of local ‘Black Power' groups to the arrival of the area's carnival, the film is a fitting testament to the tenacity and strength of a community. The ‘founders' of the Ladbroke Grove community describe their experience of life at that time. With decaying housing, slum landlords and brutal racism, the local community were forced to defend themselves; something that developed into a more general community resistance.
Blood Ah Goh Run (1980), dir. Imruh Caesar and Menelik Shabbazz, 20 min.
Short 'newsfilm' looking back at the tumultuous events of 1981, beginning with the killing of 13 Black youths in New Cross, London. The film goes on to show the anger this aroused in the Black community and the march organised for The Black People's Day of Action.
4pm Sunday 17 January
Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008), dir. Gini Ritcker, 72 min.
Combining contemporary interviews, archival images and scenes of present-day Liberia, the film recounts the experiences and memories of the women who stood up to their country's tyrannical leader and brutal warlords, in order to bring peace to their country. Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for a nation torn to shreds by a decade old civil war.
4pm Sunday 24 January - Triple Bill
On Becoming An Activist (1999), Angela Davis, 3:36 min (audio)
On Becoming An Activist is the opening track in Angela Davis’ little known record The Industrial Prison Complex, edited from a recorded lecture given at Colorado Springs 1997. Davis traces her own path to activism: from the campaign in Birmingham in her youth after the church bombing which killed 4 of her girlfriends, through her prosecution and incarceration for political work around George Jackson & the Panthers, to her anti-prison work today.
David Gilbert: A Lifetime of Struggle (2002), dir. Claude Marks and Lisa Rudman, 30 min.
A rare opportunity to go behind prison walls for a discussion with David Gilbert, a lifelong anti-imperialist activist and former member of the Weather Underground organisation. Gilbert is serving a life sentence in prison for activities in support of the Black Liberation Movement. He explains why he joined the movement, what led him to go underground, and discusses frankly the strengths and errors of the movement and Weather Underground.
We Were Born to Survive (1995), dir. Paul Okojie, 29 min.
A political biography of Manchester activist Kath Locke, based on an interview conducted shortly before her death in 1992. A close friend of Olive Morris, Locke was highly active in campaigning for women's rights as well as in the promotion of different educational and cultural activities in Moss Side, including the formation of Manchester Black Women Mutual Aid and Abasindi Cooperative.
OTHER SCREENINGS
5pm Saturday 5 December (after the 'Documenting Migration' event from 2-5pm)
Signs of Empire (1984), dir. Black Audio Film Collective, 44 min.
Signs of Empire comprises "an investigation into colonial fantasy" as well as into the historical conditions that informed contemporary racial, economic, and diasporic life in Britain. A montage of texts and images is employed to deconstruct official historical narratives and archival photographs, while the soundtrack combines musique concrete with tape loops of political speech.
4pm Thursday 10 December - Double Bill
Grove Roots (2009), dir. Rae Evelyn, Kaye-Ann Adjei, Dontony Gill-Nasady, Moktar Alatas, Zakiya Amlak, Clinton Plummer-Nelson, Bankole Adegbulugbe, Jodechi Cumberbatch, 45 min.
The film unearths the pivotal history of Ladbroke Grove, from the 1958 race riots, to its recent gentrification. Featuring the voices of renowned screenwriters, local musicians, artists and community workers, the film was researched, directed and produced as a collaboration between the eight young filmmakers.
Sam the Wheels (2008) dir. Clovis Salmon, various durations.
A selection of digitised clips from unique film shot between the 1960s and 1980s by Clovis Salmon, a first generation Jamaican migrant who arrived in London in the 1950s. Clovis is an 80 year old ex-Pentecostal minister, locally known as "Sam The Wheels" for his work building wheels at Holdsworth Cycles and for the repair service he operates from his home in Railton Road. The digitisation of the footage was part of a participatory arts, video and web project by Mutiny Arts and 198 Gallery exploring the heritage of Brixton.
4pm Thursday 7 January – Repeat screening
Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008), dir. Gini Ritcker, 72 min.
FILMS ON DEMAND
If you want to come in individually or as a group and watch films outside of screening times, you can organise your own screening at Gasworks with the view-on-demand film library. A member of staff will provide you with technical support and access to a list of films including Dread, Beat an' Blood, From You Were Black, You Were Out and Grove Roots, as well a selection of YouTube clips.
For more information and to arrange a suitable time if you are coming with a group, please contact: info@gasworks.org.uk Tel: 020 7582 6848
CREDITS
The film programme has been researched and organised by Marianna Liosi.
Many thanks to those who have contributed ideas and time, and donated films for screening: Celluloid Liberation Front, Cinenova, Colin Prescod (Institute of Race Relations), Concord Media, David Lawson (Smoking Dogs Films), Julia Morandeira, Marianna Liosi, Natasha Cox, Sukant Chandan.
The film programme has been made possible with the support of the project DE.MO./MovinUp 2009 by Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri - Dipartimento della Gioventù, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, GAI - Associazione per il Circuito dei Giovani Artisti Italiani.
