You learn something new every time you situate a piece of past knowledge in a new context
(Prof. Stuart Hall at the ICA screening of The Stuart Hall Project, 2013)
It was just one week ago when The June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive (JGPACA) launched Movements, a dynamic series of screenings, discussions and an exhibition in celebration of Pan-African cinema and its impact on the cultural life of London, the UK and beyond made possible by Creativeworks London, UAL, and Birkbeck.
Over 32 years ago June Givanni, a remarkable curator of African and African diaspora cinema, started out working on the Third Eye Film Festival in London, she then went to programme nationally and internationally, and set up the African-Caribbean unit at the British Film Institute (1992), and from 1993-1996 published the BFI’s Black Film Bulletin with Gaylene Gould. Throughout her career June has been programming prominent film festivals around the world and on this journey has built up a wealth of material of and about Pan-African cinema which dates from the 70s until now, and not just films but also photographs, audio interviews, journals, posters, scripts and memorabilia, all devoted to the celebration of Black experiences on film.
The Movements exhibition, which will run until Monday 27 October, showcases this rich material celebrating the work of pioneers of Black-British Cinema like Horace Ove (Pressure, 1976), Isaac Julien (Territories, 1984), Maureen Blackwood (Home Away from Home, 1994), Reece Auguiste (Twilight City, 1989), Djbril Diop Mambety, Ousmane Sembene and many more.
“Historic moments in the development of Caribbean, Black-British, African-American and African cinema have played witness to significant Movements that transcend geographical boundaries and given rise to a global dialogue”, says June. “The Archive is born out of the passion that has driven these aesthetic, intellectual and socio-political positions within the diaspora experience. And the support from Creativeworks London in bringing it to life has been invaluable, not just in terms of the seed funding but the value that the university collaborations brings as well, namely with Birkbeck and UAL Chelsea, where the Movements screenings and exhibition will be held. To present the Archive in a higher education setting with two major academic partners in the field of art and culture, provides a fantastic platform to be able to explore and test the value of it. Knowledge in the African context is gained by looking back and knowing where you come from, in order to inform how you go forward: it is a maxim that serves all peoples, all cultures and all occasions. With the Movements events series we want to show a panorama of geographically dispersed African voices, works and ideas, drawing on historical concepts such as Pan-Africanism and Négritude, to wider liberation and post-colonial movements that have been central to Pan-African Cinema.”
The Movements Exhibition is open now and will run until Monday 27 October 2014, don’t miss it… Details below:
Movements | Archive Exhibition, Cookhouse Gallery
Thursday 16 October – Monday 27 October 2014
Chelsea College of Arts
University of the Arts London
John Islip Street
London
SW1P 4JU