THREE UPCOMING SCREENINGS

Join us for a series of screenings, talks and workshops organized in collaboration between Lagos-based Monangambee and London-based Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) with the support of the British Council, engaging artists of African descent and the diaspora in conversation with John Akomfrah’s oeuvre, in terms of aesthetics, practice and social commitments. This project was prompted by John Akomfrah's work at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Listening All Night to the Rain. 

1.

UNSETTLED GROUNDS

JANUARY 10, 2025 • G.A.S. FOUNDATION, LAGOS

Unsettled Grounds brings together landscape oriented works, which ponder on labor, ecology and the afterlives of colonialism in Portugal, Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Part film, part installations, each work introduces a kind of architectural approach to cinema, which revels in laying bare the physicality of the act of filming and the camera apparatus, as well as the uncertain grounds on which they stand. 

Program:

  • South Circular, Monica De Miranda, 2019, Portugal, 22mn

  • Guardian Angel, Olukemi Lijadu, 2022, UK/Nigeria, 24mn

  • Lagos Island, Karimah Ashadu, 2012, Nigeria, 5mn

  • Makoko Sawmill, Karimah Ashadu, 2015, Nigeria, 20mn

  • Plateau, Karimah Ashadu, 2022, Nigeria, 30mn

5PM, January 10, 2025 at G. A. S. Foundation, 9 Hakeem Dickson Dr, off TF Kuboye Road, Oniru, Lagos.

2.

WATERY YEARNING

JANUARY 11, 2025 • TREEHOUSE, LAGOS

Water as a literal and metaphorical element, particularly the Atlantic Ocean, is spotlighted in this program as the locus of longing, regeneration and return for individuals and generations in West Africa and its diaspora. These films question the manners in which the project of globalization and racial capitalism attempt to sever the inextricable relations and ecologies between Black populations and the water bodies that sustain them. In Watery Yearnings, water is presented as a site for sustainable lives, healing, and rest.

Program:

  • Drexciya, Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2010, Ghana, 13mn

  • Life on the Horn, Mo Harawe, 2020, Somalia, 25mn

  • Aqua, Samba Félix N’diaye, 1992, Senegal, 12mn

  • In Praise of Still Boys, Julianknxx, 2021, Sierra Leone, 5mn 

  • Testament, John Akomfrah, 1988, UK/Ghana, 88mn

5PM, January 11, 2025 at Treehouse, Awolowo Road behind Spar/YMCA Bldg. Unit 1, 7th Floor, Ikoyi. Enter behind bldg, Lagos.

3.

TRICKSTERS

JANUARY 20-26, 2025 • VIRTUAL, WORLDWIDE

We borrow our title for this program from one of the main characteristics of the orisha Èṣù in Yoruba spirituality and Ananse in Akan mythology. Tricksters hold a double edge — playful, mischievous and open to possibilities, they hold promises but also the risks and perils associated with uncertainty and irreverence towards colonial law and norms. 

Program:

  • Apapa Amusement Park, Karimah Ashadu, 2013, Nigeria, 3mn

  • Liberty, Faren Humes, 2019, United States, 17mn

  • On Freedom of Movement (wi de muv), Julianknxx, 2022, Sierra Leone, 10mn

  • Specialised Technique, Igwe, 2018, Nigeria, 7mn

  • Trading Memories, Olukemi Lijadu, 2022, UK/Nigeria, 3mn

  • A Letter (side B), Larry Achiampong, 2023, Ghana, 20mn

January 20-26 online, available worldwide.