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