*London Migration Film Festival Opening Gala*
Film + Q&A | 20 Nov; 6:30pm | SOAS Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
As he pedals through the streets of Paris to deliver meals, Souleymane repeats his story. In two days, he has to go through his asylum interview, the key to obtaining papers and safety. But Souleymane is not ready.
This beautiful and poignant film explores the human impact of punitive migration laws, and its intersection with a labour market increasingly dominated by algorithms and insecure work.
Dir: Boris Lojkine | Length: 1h 32min
Film + Q&A | 21 Nov; 6:45pm | Brixton Windmill
In the 70's, Bokolo and Mamadou are Senegalese street sweepers in the city of Paris, looking for a way to pay for the return home of one of their sick comrades. After stumbling upon a 19th-century cookbook they decide to enter a cooking competition. The two cleaners-turned-chefs proceed to expose the pretentious pomp of French cuisine – as well as the industry’s racism and classism.
In a film that could easily have been heavy, Maldoror uses comedy to combat racist stereotypes in this charming portrait of solidarity and triumph, while never shying away from showing the harsh realities of the immigrant experience.
Dir: Sarah Maldoror | Length: 1h 1m
In collaboration with Brixton Community Cinema
Film Talk + DJs | 21 Nov; 7pm | Ridley Road Social Club
Just like flavours and smells, sounds deeply connect us to the values, traditions and identities of home, migrating through bodies and borders, across time and space. For diasporic communities, combining music with video has become a powerful tool for preserving their homeland’s musical traditions and negotiating their sense of belonging, while also adapting to new technologies and modes of exchange. Music becomes an artefact of migration.
Join us in the celebration of these music clips: from Scopitones, to cable TV and Youtube to Instagram reels and TikTok. This event will feature an interactive installation open throughout the day, alongside a film programme, roundtable discussion and a DJ set to cap off the night.
Produced by Louise Gholam and Isabella Barkett in partnership with ILL-3AB
Film + Q&A | 21 Nov; 7:15pm | Kings College London, Safra Lecture Theatre
In Laredo, a city in southern Texas on the Mexican border, best friends Silvia and Beba know that the long summer nights of their youth cannot last forever. Their hang-out spots are so familiar but, stuck in an immigration process over which deportation hangs as a constant possibility, home still seems a fragile concept. Between bars, drive-thrus, friends’ couches and the borderlands, they confront the stresses of survival, the future, and community building. For them, this means protest action for legal abortion and against border control abuses, in a politically divided America.
But the dusty half-light is also a time for poetry and dreams. Their laughter and creative expression cement a sense of solidarity and belonging in togetherness.
Dir: Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras | Length: 1h 17m
Film + Q&A | 22 Nov; 7:15pm | Kings College London, Safra Lecture Theatre
Set in the 1950s, The Dupes traces the destinies of three different men brought together by their dispossession, their despair and their hope for a better future. The protagonists are Palestinian refugees trying to make their way across the border from Iraq into Kuwait, the 'Promised Land,' concealed in the steel tank of a truck. Representing different dimensions of the Palestinian experience, each one believes he can make a new life for himself, but as the film’s title suggests, their flight is no solution.
Dir: Tewfik Saleh | Length: 1h 47m
Film + Q&A | 22 Nov; 6:30pm | Genesis Cinema
Having been sent to Europe as a baby after a birthmark convinced his mother that he must be a sorcerer, Koffi and his Belgian fiancée Alice embark on a fraught family trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, complexities abound as four individuals find their different worlds and perspectives clashing which intersect through chapters in the film, each adding a new dimension as the narrative unfolds.
A visceral and kinetic tale of reconciliation, superstition, and the violence of extractivism told in a beautiful and at times hallucinatory vision.
Dir: Baloji | Length: 1h 32m
Performance | 22 Nov; 6:30pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
‘When the Lights Go Off...and the Cleaners Get In’ is a theatrical film and live performance about the lives, dreams and struggles of Latin American women working in the cleaning sector in London.
Migrants in Action (MinA) invites to an evening dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating the often overlooked but vital contributions of migrant women. It is a call for awareness, empathy, and action, advocating for the rights and dignity of those who keep our cities running long after the lights go off.
Drag Show | 22 Nov; Doors at 8pm, start at 9pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
Well those borders aren't going to drag themselves down, are they?
Join us for a night full of queer joy and solidarity with Drag Down the Borders as we showcase incredible drag, burlesque, cabaret and DJ talent!
The whole night will be hosted by your favourite Catholic Daddy, Sweet FA.
Writing workshop | 23 Nov; 12:30pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
What if people no longer needed to seek asylum? What if borders were abolished? What if we could migrate to a future utopia? Sci-fi writing prompts like these can help us to imagine a future world. In Postcards to the Future, participants are guided to create a film pitch exploring "time-migration".
Diving deeper into the film ideas, participants are then invited to send a fictional postcard.... which may or may not reach its time-travelling destination.
Through writing exercises and group discussion, Postcards to the Future invites you to engage critically with the ideas of migration through space and time.
In collaboration with One Thousand & One Letters
Storytelling | 23 Nov; 2:30pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
Join Hekayyatna for an experiential storytelling event which follows the trail of breadcrumbs of what stays after we go.
Alongside the audience’s own experiences, this event will unpack and reveal the significance and symbolism of the objects we leave behind during movement and migration, and how these can paint a picture of who we are now.
Attendees will be prompted to reflect on the objects they have left behind, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and contemplate how their absence has shaped who they have become. From forgotten notes in library books to family photos lost on ruined walls, to packed suitcases of belongings – the event will explore how we archive what we no longer possess.
In collaboration with Hekayyatna
Workshop | 23 Nov, 1pm | Palestine House
Did you know, there are 12.3 million words in the Arabic language, compared to 171,000 in the English language? Well, in this fun, interactive and discussion-based workshop, you’ll be guided into the world of words and phrases exclusive to the Arabic language. In this workshop, we'll unpack the word 'Ghorba' - which refers to living in the diaspora - and we'll explore how it manifests in your life and culture!
*This is for both English and Arabic speakers. The workshop will be run in English.
Run in collaboration with Culture Mocktail
Tour & workshop | 23 Nov; 2pm | Tower Hamlets Cemetery
An insightful trek through Tower Hamlets Cemetery to learn about the histories of people of colour, gender diverse people, and working class people of East London, which will be followed by an interactive workshop.
We will think about how we can leave living memories in our public spaces. The workshop will unpack material from local archives revealing the histories of marginalised communities, asking participants - how can local, diverse communities leave their mark as neighbourhoods rapidly change? Guided by prompts, we will create ‘living monuments’ with ethically foraged materials.
This is an interactive and insightful workshop for all ages where we will explore the relationship between local history and our natural environment.
In collaboration with Chromatic Agency
Film + Q&A | 23 Nov; 4.30pm | Institute of Contemporary Arts
Disconsolate Ivorian bride Aya abandons her groom at their wedding, then promptly moves to the Chinese city of Guangzhou where she finds work in a tea shop owned by a divorced trader. He mentors her in the art of tea connoisseurship and, gradually, they fall in love. In doing so, they are confronted with the complexities of cultural assimilation. Can their affair survive the turmoil of their pasts and other people’s prejudices?
Sissako’s film, in a clear nod to Wong Kar Wai, reveals a narrative of aspirational migration across the rarely addressed axis of Asia and Africa, offering an evocative and insightful perspective on interconnectedness.
Dir: Abderrahmane Sissako | Length: 1h 50m
Workshop | 24 Nov; 12:30 | Upstairs at the Ritzy
Come and join us for an afternoon of crafting, community and creativity at B!TCH & STITCH where we'll knit, natter and get to know each other!
Textile work and fabric arts are a medium through which the different cultural and social experiences of immigrant communities, as well as colonial and extractionist histories, can be explored, unpacked and/or celebrated.
So, whether you're a knitting novice or a crochet connoisseur, feel inspired to explore a new creative hobby.
Workshop led by Maryam Rimi
Films + Music + Q&A | 24 Nov; 3.30pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
Intersectional Diasporic Experience of Koryo-Saram, the (post-)Soviet Koreans.
In 1937, Koryo-saram were forcibly displaced from the Far East of the Russian SFSR to Central Asia as part of a secret racist operation launched by Stalin’s government, which was rearranging multiple populations and indigenous peoples due to perceived “anti-Soviet activities”. Over a century of their existence, Koryo-saram have developed their own cuisine, literature, fashion, music, and cinema, often far from the limelight.
In collaboration with Misha Zakharov, a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick and curator at Screening Rights Film Festival, and Goethe-Institut UK
Film | 24 Nov; 3:30pm | Bertha DocHouse
The seemingly quiet and largely indigenous town of El Alberto is becoming a ghost town, as many have suffered the loss of loved ones who died trying to enter, or can’t return from, the US. To survive this, they start simulating an experience they all know: crossing the border to the US illegally. The residents of the village slip into the roles of border guards, human traffickers, and narcos to reenact the crossing for paying tourists so they can put themselves into the shoes of a migrant for one night.
But is this a story of empowerment or a people stuck in a loop of their traumatic experiences?
Dir: Clara Trischler | Length: 1h 18m
The Wolves Always Come at Night (Чоно үүр шөнөөр ирдэг)
Film + Q&A | 24 Nov; 6:00pm | Bertha DocHouse
Davaa and Zaya (co-writers of the film) live with their children and flock in the Bayankhongor region of Mongolia. But the titular wolf is never far from the door; the climate is changing, which forces the family into an urban centre and a new way of life.
A breathtaking and heartbreaking blend of documentary and fiction, this film is a timely reminder of the sometimes tenuous foundations of the places we call home, and of the imminence of climate emergency.
Dir: Gabrielle Brady | Length: 1h 35m
*Preview Screening*
Film + Q&A | 24 Nov; 6:10pm | Genesis Cinema
Prabha, Anu and Parvaty moved to Mumbai to work at a hospital. Here, they grapple daily with the opportunities and hardships of existence in the city.
Balancing an immersive verité style with a touch of the surreal, Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning drama captures the many shades of working-class life in Mumbai. The result is a profound and deeply humanist meditation on urban migration and dislocation.
Dir: Payal Kapadia | Length: 1h 55 min
Workshop | 23 Nov, 5pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
How do we create home in new spaces? What does it mean to belong when borders - both physical and psychological - shape our daily experiences? This two-part event - intimate panel discussion and innovative performative drawing workshop - examines how migrants craft spaces of belonging through everyday practices of care, connection, and creative resistance, and it invites participants to explore their own relationship with space, belonging, and embodiment.
This is a safe space to examine, explore and express the complex tensions migrants feel between rootedness and displacement, tradition and transformation, memory and presence.
Film | 25 Nov; 6:20pm | The Lexi Cinema
Cléo loves her nanny Gloria more than anyone. But when Gloria suddenly has to return home to Cape Verde to look after her own children, Gloria invites the heartbroken Cléo to visit her and the two have to make the most of their last summer together.
A film that works both as a simple heartfelt drama and as a clear allegory (and critique) of colonialism, Ama Gloria is a beautifully drawn study of a young girl on a steep learning curve about the broader contexts of her, and other people’s, worlds.
Dir: Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq | Length: 1h 23m
*Preview screening*
Film + Q&A | 25 Nov; 6:30pm | Genesis Cinema
Athens-based Palestinian refugees Chatila and Reda are trying to save what little money they can to purchase passports so they can move to Germany, only for Chatila to become drawn into a high-risk smuggling plot after Reda spends all their money on heroin.
At once a parable of desperation and social realist thriller, this film explores the lengths people are pushed to within the context of the failing and inhumane Greek asylum system.
Followed by Q&A with director Mahdi Fleifel
Dir: Mahdi Fleifel | Length: 1h 45m
Film + Q&A | 25 Nov; 6:30pm | SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre
Lia, a retired teacher living in a small town in Georgia, has promised to find her long-lost niece, Tekla, after she was forced to leave her family home when she came out as a trans woman. Her search takes her to Istanbul where she meets Evrim, a lawyer fighting for trans rights, and Tekla starts to feel closer than ever.
Director Levan Akin centres the vital spirit of Istanbul’s trans community in this poignant story of unlikely connection.
Dir: Levan Akin | Length: 1h 46 min
Performing the adaptive reuse of cinemas as places of worship by diaspora communities
26 Nov; 6pm | The Zoroastrian Centre / the Ace Cinema
An expanded film performance, artist talk, and panel discussion at the Zoroastrian Centre, formerly the Ace Cinema in Rayners Lane, Harrow. A custom-designed filming and playback device captures religious practices from the congregation’s viewpoint, which are then projected back into the site, maintaining the exact scale and time as the image maps onto the space.
Led by artist filmmaker Julie Marsh and architectural historian Kate Jordan at the University of Westminster.
Free - there will be refreshments served
*UK premiere*
Film + Q&A | 26 Nov; 6:30 | SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre
"THIS JUNGO LIFE" takes us deep inside the hidden lives of young refugees and asylum seekers from Sudan and South Sudan, living and sleeping rough on the streets of Rabat, Morocco; forced to flee violence and instability in Libya, and unable to return home due to ongoing war and conflict.
Produced in collaboration with the refugees themselves, and filmed entirely using mobile phones, this film offers unique and intimate access, providing a raw and unfiltered glimpse into the human spirit and innate drive for survival, as they fight for a better life for themselves and the families they left behind.
Dir: David Fedele & the Jungo of Rabat | Length: 1h 17m
Film | 26 Nov; 6:40pm | Genesis Cinema
After leaving Haiti during the dictatorship, a boy and his mother settle in a rural village in Quebec, where the child relies on his imaginary friend to understand the strange and at times hostile new world around him.
Part sci-fi, fantasy and myth, this beautiful film explores a child’s sense of feeling alien(ated) both by his new home and the adults in his life.
Dir: Henri Pardo | Length: 1h 52m
Recipe Writing Workshop | 26 Nov; 6:45pm | Upstairs at the Ritzy
As people cross borders, their culture - and cuisine - travels with them. In the process of migration, dishes and meals often evolves and adapt to new environments and pantries. Yet how can we preserve some of the flavours and emotions linked to a favorite dish from afar, and how can we translate it into a recipe?
Join chef and food writer Ixta Belfrage at a workshop where you’ll explore techniques to adapt recipes from another heritage to new culinary contexts.
Workshop delivered by chef and food writer Ixta Belfrage
Short Films + Q&A | 26 November, 7:15pm | King’s College London, Room K1.56
In this programme of shorts, dreams take center stage. From hopes for the future, to imagining what could have been had life been different, filmmakers use a wide range of different techniques and approaches to explore themes of longing, wishes, aspiration and regret.
Followed by a Q&A with professional filmmakers exploring the different ways in which film ideas can be translated and turned into (short) films.
Panel Discussion + Performances, Drinks and Chats
27 November, 7pm | King’s College London, Macadam Building, Terrace Cafe
In a fast moving world, we look back at the canon in literature - Shakespeare, Dante, Chaucer - and explore their relevance for current discussions on migration, movement and asylum. A dynamic event bringing together artists, writers, academics and people with lived experience of (forced) migration.
Join us to celebrate the end of London Migration Film Festival 2024, and get to know each other’s work and perspectives on the centuries old, but never more present, theme of migration.
Featuring Majid Adin, Dr Jennifer Allsopp, and The Other Side of Hope literary magazine.
Symposium + discussion + food
29 November, 9am | University of Westminster - Cavendish Campus
In a unique partnership between the University of Westminster’s HOMELandS Research Centre and Migration Collective’s London Migration Film Festival, this Symposium will bring together scholars, artists, performers, legal experts, and activists to explore the interconnected themes of art, migration, and law. The aim is to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue, and collaboration, and ultimately drive change.
This Symposium, through the contributions of artists, activists, and researchers, will specifically explore how and where art intersects with legal structures, with a particular focus on migration.
TICKETS (FREE)
Films + Q&A + wine reception
29 November, 6pm | University of Westminster, room UG05
PositiveNegatives, a non-profit creative research organisation will join us for a series of screenings that introduce the audience to innovative ways of 'disturbing' the conventional narrative of migration. By prioritizing subjective experiences and applying creative techniques such as animation and illustration, based on ethnographic research, the screenings aim to transform personal stories into art, educational, and advocacy materials.
In collaboration with University of Westminster and PositiveNegatives
TICKETS (FREE)