Cinema Akil is bringing BLACKBIRD back to Dubai for its second edition, with a three-day programme exploring Black memory, voice and legacy through cinema.
Running from September 25 to 27 at the independent cinema’s home in Alserkal Avenue, the programme will feature screenings, filmmaker Q&As and conversations with special guests.
Curated by Shannon Ayers Holden, Associate Director of Community Relations at Alserkal Avenue, this year’s edition is inspired by Nina Simone’s song Blackbird and brings together films connected by a Black point of view.
The programme opens with Mira Nair’s 1991 romantic drama Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury. The film follows Mina, whose Indian family was expelled from Uganda, as she falls in love with Demetrius, a Black carpet cleaner in Mississippi.
The September 25 screening will include an online introduction by Nair, while a second screening will take place on September 26.
Also on the programme is Horace Ové’s Pressure, released in 1976 and recognised as the first feature film directed by a Black British filmmaker. Set in 1970s West London, it follows a British-born teenager with Trinidadian parents as he navigates unemployment and racism. A September 26 screening will be followed by an online Q&A with Rob Buckler.
Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust will also screen during the weekend. Released in 1991, it became the first feature directed by an African American woman to receive a wide theatrical release in the United States. Its September 27 screening will be followed by a Talk to Strangers session hosted by Holden.
The line-up also includes the 2002 film Drumline, starring Nick Cannon and Orlando Jones. The story centres on a talented drummer from Harlem who receives a scholarship to attend a fictional historically Black college and university. Director Charles Stone III will join an online Q&A following the September 27 screening.
Rounding out the highlighted programme is Matt Wolf’s 2019 documentary Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project. It tells the story of Philadelphia activist and librarian Marion Stokes, who recorded American television around the clock for more than three decades, building an archive of more than 70,000 VHS tapes.
BLACKBIRD will run at Cinema Akil, Alserkal Avenue, from September 25 to 27.
Source: Khaleej Times