Handsworth Songs
Black Audio Film Collective
Handsworth Songs 1986
© courtesy Smoking Dogs Films
Friday 26 August 2011, 19.00
Handsworth Songs
John Akomfrah / Black Audio Film Collective, 1986, 16mm, 60 min
In October 1985 Britain witnessed a spate of social unrest in Birmingham and in urban centres of London. These violent events were marked by the death of an elderly black woman, Joy Gardner and a white policeman, Keith Blakelock.
Handsworth Songs takes as its point of departure these events and the subsequent response by the British media.
The film evokes a broad range of voices, tones and registers and contends that the meaning in the malaise of the 1980s riots is to be found in events outside the frame of contemporary reportage, in moments which seemed to have little affective relation to the expressions of discontent which characterised the riots.
In response to the recent civil disturbances in Britain, this screening of Black Audio Film Collective's iconic film
Handsworth Songs is followed by a conversation with three members of the Collective, John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul and David Lawson, in dialogue with artist, critic and curator Kodwo Eshun of the Otolith Group. The event aims to contextualise recent events and offers a space to discuss possible cultural responses.
Handsworth Songs is one of three works by Black Audio Film Collective recently acquired for the Tate Collection
Black Audio Film Collective was a cine-cultural film group formed in 1982 by seven former college friends in London. The group wrote theoretical papers, ran screenings of experimental and third world cinema, held filmmaking workshops and produced films that explored identity politics, representation and filmmaking aesthetics.
Handsworth Songs will be featured in the exhibition
Migrations at Tate Britain, 31 January - 12 August 2012.
Tate Modern Starr Auditorium
Free, no bookings taken
first-come, first-served
