Films

This year, Counterpoints Arts and Other Cinemas – two organisations who work across intersections of racial justice, migration and climate – have collaborated on a film programme taking place 17-23 June for a community-powered week! 

The programme, curated by Other Cinemas, consists of 5 shorts and 1 feature length film that explore the theme of ‘Our Home’. Home can be more than one place and finding it can be a journey, as it is for so many of us who have to leave our countries and rebuild our lives. Sometimes we can find home in a single person. Other times it’s in a whole community. And often, it’s in a single gesture of care and welcome. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet earth, the selected films invite us to celebrate the diverse meanings of our home(s). 

A selection of films you are unlikely to watch together anywhere else in one session!

In collaboration with Mensch Raum Land and Haus der Statistik.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FILMS WILL BE SCREENED IN ENGLISH OR IF IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.

Schedule & Films

17:00-17:15 Motherland, dir. Ellen Evans (13m 14s)

Category: Short Documentary
Motherland speaks to the experiences of the Windrush generation and subsequent generations of Jamaicans navigating the landscape of the UK hostile environment.
Audience: Wide age group.
Themes: Windrush, Jamaica, Deportation, Hostile Environment

17:15-17:45 In Vitro, dir. Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind (27m 44s)

Category: Short Fiction
With a cast led by Hiam Abbas (star of ‘Succession’ and ‘Ramy’), In Vitro stages a conversation between a mother and daughter, two generations of Palestinians considering what it may mean to rebuild a home one has never seen or has long lost.
Audience: Wide age group.
Themes: Palestine, Sci-Fi, Exile, Memory, Ecological Disaster

17:45-17:50 A Swing in Atayfiyah, dir. Bediah (3m 24s)

Category: Short Documentary
A Swing in Atayfiyah dwells in the memory of homes and friendships left behind in Iraq, the irrecoverable sense of belonging, and the dissonance of diaspora. 
Audience: Wide age group. 
Themes: Iraq, Migration, Diaspora 

17:50-18:15 Little Pyongyang, dir. Roxy Rezvany (24m)

Category: Short Documentary
With exclusive access to one of the world’s largest community of North Korean defectors, this is a tale of one North Korean’s struggle to leave behind the homeland. Joong-wha Choi, a former soldier in the DPRK, lives today with his wife and kids in a sleepy London suburb. Despite enjoying the new-found comforts of his British life, and being emancipated from the pressures of the North Korean state, his dilemma lies in a desire to return to the land that betrayed him, but is undoubtedly his true home.
Audience: Wide age group
Themes: Displacement, belonging.

18:30-18:50 I Carry It With Me Everywhere, dir. Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah (18m 47s)

Category: Short Fiction
I Carry It With Me Everywhere draws a line across multiple temporalities and registers of immigrant life, uniting three different stories of migration in Northwest London through a shared condition of fragmentation.
Audience: Wide age group. 
Themes: Migration, Grief, Death, Displacement, Punjab, Syria, Jamaica.

18:50-19:20 Neighbour Abdi, dir. Douwe Dijkstra (29m)

How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. By means of playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

Category: Short Fiction
Audience: Wide age group. 
Themes: Migration, Grief, Displacement, Somalia.

19:20-19:50 Real People, dir. Olmo Parenti (27m 37s)

In December 2021, director Olmo Parenti joined a rescue mission of the rescue ship Ocean Viking by SOS MEDITERRANEE. The resulting documentary shows the rescue of 114 people and immerses us in their conversations as they wait to disembark in Italy ten days later. Like a logbook, it offers an intimate approach to the people rescued, revealing spontaneous reflections and emotions rarely shown on camera.

Category: Short Documentary
Audience: Wide age group. 
Themes: Migration, Grief, Hope, Displacement, The Mediterranean Sea.

19:50-20:30 Conversation

Conversation with Yannik Nolthenius and Lorin Celebi from SOS MEDITERRANEE about the film Real People.

In addition, we are offering one film to be watched online at your own time during the Refugee Week 17-23 June:

Dhalinyaro (Youth), dir. Lula Ismaïl (1h 25m)

Link to the film

Category: Feature fiction
Synopsis: Asma, Hibo and Deka are on the verge of high school graduation. As they navigate the beginnings of adulthood, they must decide between university in France or staying home in Djibouti.
Audience: 15+
Themes: Djibouti, France, University, Friendship, Girlhood , Coming of Age.

In collaboration with Mensch Raum Land and Haus der Statistik.

Attendance is free and you can book your place in the event here.