Dear friends and colleagues,
Basia Lewondowska has curated a season of African contemporary cinema at Bold Tendencies in Peckham, which begins on the 14th of July and runs to the end of September.
Bold Tendencies is run by Hannah Barry Gallery , and returns each summer to repurpose a multi-storey car park just off Rye Lane . There is an art installation that runs throughout the upper floors, and Frank's Bar on the roof.
This summer-long series of screenings will take place at sunset on the roof in the open air. All films are free, and you can browse the events programme here. I've also listed the full programme below.
In the open air with a beer, on top of a car park overlooking London is a very memorable way to enjoy a film. It would be fantastic to see some of you there.
The list of films screening are:
Sunday 14 July - 9.30pm: Restless City (80mins) (free to book)
A film that exudes the haze of midsummer Harlem , cut to Senegalese beats. Djibril (Sy Alassane), a Senegalese migrant, aspiring singer and Canal Street peddler as he falls in love with Trini (Sky Grey), and descends into a murky world of desire and longing in New York City .
Sunday 18 August - 8.30pm: Veejays in Dar es Salaam (free to book) – Introduced by Phil Hoad, Guardian journalist and author of the blog After Hollywood
Across East Africa a hugely popular film culture has existed for more than a decade: that of “video jockeying” (or VJing), where blockbusters – mostly Hollywood , Bollywood, and kung fu films – are translated into local languages for local viewers.
22 August - 8.30pm: Short Film Night (free to book)
This evening of short films showcases emerging artists and filmmakers who challenge our expectations of African cinema. It is a chance to watch Fyzal Boulifa’s BAFTA nominated film, The Curse – a harrowing piece of cinema about young sexuality in Morocco – and to be introduced to the work of Akosua Adoma Owusu, whose experimental films about migrant identity, hairstyles and old colonial dreams experiment with the film-essay form.
Friday 23 August - 8.30pm: We The Ragamuffin (free to book) – Introduced by director Julian Henriques and Mickey General + live music
In the original production notes for We the Ragamuffin, the writers cautioned – “In some ways Peckham is more like the Wild West than a 20th-century city.” But it was in a nightclub in Peckham, back in 1993, that We The Ragamuffin premiered, with its star Buckey Ranks resplendent in “a velvet and sequinned suit, and enough gold chains and rings to keep Gerald Ratner in prawn sandwiches for the next 20 years”, as was reported in the Independent at the time.
Sunday 1 September - 8.15pm: Though I Know the River is Dry (free to book) – Introduced by director Omar Robert Hamilton
Caught between his brother's past and his child's future, one man's choice triggers catastrophe for his family. Directed by Omar Robert Hamilton, co-founder of the Mosireen Collective and founder of the Palestine Film Festival in Jerusalem , Though I Know the River is Dry is a remarkable film, set in Egypt , that connects contemporary political issues with personal, emotional dilemmas. Beautiful, intimate yet sharply observant of the post-revolutionary Arab world, Hamilton melds fiction with archival material, to create a poetic portrait of contemporary Egypt .
Sunday 15 September – 8.00pm: Otelo Burning (free to book)
'So that’s what people mean when they talk about freedom’. Set in late 1989 in Lamontville , South Africa Otelo Burning follows 16-year-olds Otelo, New Year and Ntwe as they fall in love with surfing, and come of age just as Apartheid is nearing its end, against a backdrop of brewing township violence.
