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This event will be live-streamed on YouTube, Wednesday 16th April, 7-8.30pm, you can RSVP here.

Join us for a free online conversation event between multidisciplinary artist Aziza Kadyri, and Francesca Stocco, PhD researcher of textile art at Nottingham Trent University.

The talk will explore Aziza’s contemporary art practice, which blends the Central Asian tradition of suzani embroidery with AI technology. Combining physical stitching with digital tools, she reformulates suzani motifs and infuses them with personal and current socio-political narratives. 

Together, the speakers will discuss the evolving meaning of textile craft in Aziza’s practice and in the context of Uzbekistan’s ongoing cultural transformation. Aziza has represented Uzbekistan at the 2024 Venice Art Biennial, along with the Qizlar collective and suzani master Madina Kasimbaeva. Set within a deconstructed theatre backstage, the exhibition explored migration, identity, and belonging through the lived experiences of Central Asian women. Through her collective and multi-media practice, Aziza challenges the Euro-centric division between craft and the fine arts, while also questioning the notion of single authorship in artistic production.

This event is part of Formations, Bonington Gallery’s ongoing events programme that is delivered in partnership with the Postcolonial and Global Studies Research Group.

To watch the live stream via YouTube, click here

About the speakers

Organised by Neeraj Bunkar, a PhD student in the School of Arts and Humanities at Nottingham Trent University, The Dalit and Adivasi Film Festival (DAFF) 2025 is a platform to showcase dynamic and transformative works in visual culture created by Dalit and Adivasi filmmakers. These communities have a significant tradition of storytelling, yet their voices are often marginalised or overlooked in mainstream film circuits. DAFF seeks to amplify their narratives, perspectives, and creative expressions by bringing their work to a broader audience.

More than just a celebration of cinema, DAFF 2025 aims to foster critical engagement and dialogue. The festival will present a curated selection of twelve films, including documentaries, short films, and docu-fictions, all crafted by Dalit and Adivasi filmmakers. Each screening will be followed by interactive discussions with the filmmakers, providing an opportunity for audiences to engage with the socio-political realities explored in their work.

We dedicate DAFF 2025 to the memory of P. K. Rosy, the first actress of Malayalam cinema and a pioneering figure in the industry.

The festival will feature five sessions, commencing with the acclaimed film Swapnaayanam, directed by K.O. Akhil, the signature film of the 2024 International Film Festival of Kerala. This not only pays tribute to P. K. Rosy as a trailblazer in Malayalam cinema but also highlights the historical contributions of the working class in shaping the cinematic landscape.

Join us in celebrating cinema that amplifies marginalized voices and honours the enduring legacies of Dalit and Adivasi communities.

All screenings and discussions are online and can be accessed via the links below.


Oneric Odyssey, Udmashan, Ranjis, & Project Heartland, Friday 28 February, 3 pm GMT, 8.30 pm IST

The Waterfall & Sasandiri, Friday 28 March, 3 pm GMT, 8.30 pm IST

Vyadhi & Break the Silence, Tuesday 1 April, 3 pm BST, 7.30 pm IST

Red Brick Battleground Friday 4 April, 3 pm BST, 7.30 pm IST


Babasheb in Bengaluru, Keri Haadu/Song of Ghetto, & NON-AC Tuesday 8 April, 3 pm BST, 7.30 pm IST

The Online Dalit Film Festival 2024 is a celebration of resistance, resilience, and the power of storytelling. It is a platform to amplify the voices of Dalit filmmakers who are challenging the status quo and redefining Indian cinema.  For far too long, the visual narrative of Dalit lives has been dictated by an outsider’s gaze. This gaze has often perpetuated stereotypes, relegated Dalit characters to the margins, and failed to capture the richness and complexity of their experiences. We’ve seen Dalits portrayed as one-dimensional figures – the downtrodden, the villainous, or the comical sidekick. These depictions not only erase the rich diversity within the Dalit community but also reinforce the very caste prejudices the medium should strive to dismantle. 

We believe that true representation comes from within. We need more Dalit directors, producers, actors, and storytellers at the helm. They are the ones who can bring authenticity and depth to the portrayal of Dalit lives, showcasing their struggles, triumphs, and the vibrant tapestry of their culture. Through screenings, Q&A sessions, and a panel discussion, the festival seeks to educate and engage audiences on themes of caste, social justice, and the Dalit experience. We hope to foster a dialogue that challenges discriminatory practices and promotes a more inclusive future in Indian cinema.

Join us for the following screenings every Thursday:

The festival kicks off on Thursday, July 4th, 2024, with a screening of The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas by Rajesh Rajamani. This film exposes the hypocrisies of the ‘upper caste’ filmmakers.

July 11th, 2024: Champaran Mutton by Ranjan Umakrishn Kumar is a film that underscores the themes of caste politics and discrimination. Yarigu Helonu Bayda by Ajay Tambe is a commentary on Brahmanical society, cultural biases, and the intricate dynamics of love, friendship, betrayal, and personal conflict.

July 18th, 2024: BR Ambedkar: Now And Then (BRANT) is a feature-length documentary film by Jyoti Nisha. Driven by Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy, the film explores the representation and assertion of Bahujan people in contemporary India.

The festival concludes on Thursday, July 25th, 2024, with a panel discussion on the subject of Dalit or anti-caste themed films in India. We’ll be joined by distinguished scholars Harish S. Wankhede, Amit Kumar, Manju Edachira and Rajesh Rajamani to discuss the scope and limitations of such films, paving the way for a future of inclusive storytelling.

Organiser

Neeraj Bunkar is a PhD Scholar at the Department of English, Linguistics, and Philosophy at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom with a specific interest in Caste, Dalit, Rajasthani folklore, Oral History and Cinema. He is researching Rajasthan-based Hindi cinema from the Dalit standpoint. His write-up in the category of PostScript: ‘Spring Thunder: Adivasi Resistance for ‘Jal, Jangal, Jameen’’ (2022) and the Book review: ‘Subalternity at the Centre: A Young Diary Demands Radical Change’ (2024) published in the Economic and Political Weekly. He regularly contributes to platforms such as Forward Press and RoundTable India.

Alongside our current exhibition, Karuppu, join us for a free online in-conversation event between our exhibiting artist Osheen Siva with Jelena Sofronijevic, producer of EMPIRE LINES podcast and Nicole Thiara, researcher of Dalit and Adivasi literature.

Together, they will explore topics related to Osheen’s practice; their inspiration from cultural aesthetics that explore speculative futures and racial identity, including Afrofuturism. Osheen’s work uses science fiction, mythology, and religious heritage amidst their love of comic books and the vibrant soul of South India. Their artworks imagine fantastical dreamscapes, whilst reclaiming and reinventing Indian folktales and myths to imagine a decolonised future.

This event will be live streamed on YouTube, with auto generated closed captions. During the live event there will be the opportunity to ask questions.

For the third and final event from our Plants Beyond Empire series, Claire Reddleman and Sophie Fuggle will explore how plants have become aligned with human ideas about time, seasons and cycles.
 
Many plants have been co-opted into colonial and capitalist ways of understanding time. Reddleman and Fuggle will begin by taking up the case of the Ginkgo Biloba – often described as a ‘living fossil’ due to the fact it has remained unchanged for over 80 million years.

Drawing on Claire Reddleman’s research, and its arrival in Britain in the 18th Century, they will consider the ways in which the ginkgo has become an important presence in the British landscape. The speakers will then look at the castor bean, a very different plant, which has been used by humans for at least 24,000 years. In the late 19th century, the castor bean’s best-known product, castor oil, started to be used as a lubricant for car and aircraft engines. It enabled greater speed and fluidity, and joined fossil fuels in the service of capitalism’s quest for ever faster, ever more efficient movement. Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing and others call this era the ‘plantationocene‘, to identify how capitalism, colonialism and labour have, often destructively, shaped the natural world.



Plants Beyond Empire is a new series of conversations starting in February 2024, as part of our Formations programme, in partnership with the Postcolonial and Global Studies Research Group. The events will explore a range of creative and community interventions aimed at understanding complex human-plant entanglements within postcolonial Britain and beyond.

Photo credit – dendrologista by Claire Reddleman. Map credit – 1725 Kaart van de provincie Utrecht, François Halma, collection of Universiteitsbibliotheek, Utrecht

Join Katharina Massing and Jen Ridding for an online talk exploring how Birmingham Botanical Gardens is working with local communities and visitors to highlight its colonial connections and diversify voices within plant interpretation.

Birmingham Botanical Gardens was founded in 1832, originally as a site of botanical and horticultural research and later with a greater emphasis on leisure and wellbeing.

Similar to many Botanic Gardens, its collection is linked to colonial expansion and trade. These links can be observed throughout the site, for example through the economic plants in the glass houses or the ornamental plants from China at the Wilson border, named after the ‘plant hunter’ Ernest Henry Wilson who brought plants over to the UK. 

Katharina Massing and Jen Ridding will look at how the garden is working with local communities and visitors to highlight some of these colonial connections and diversify voices within plant interpretation.

Taking place online via YouTube.


Plants Beyond Empire is a new series of conversations starting in February 2024, as part of our Formations programme, in partnership with the Postcolonial and Global Studies Research Group. The events will explore a range of creative and community interventions aimed at understanding complex human-plant entanglements within postcolonial Britain and beyond.

Photo credit: Birmingham Botanical Garden (2024). Photo courtesy of Katharina Massing

Join artist Rebecca Beinart for a free online talk where she will share stories and work-in-progress from her long term research into plant-human relationships, medicine and porous bodies. 

During this talk she will share a short film made in collaboration with Usha Mahenthiralingam and Freddy Griffiths. The work explores the Island site in Nottingham – that once housed the Boots pharmaceutical factories and is currently under redevelopment – and spills out into histories of plant medicine, land, bioprospecting, pharmaceutical production, and thinking with plants and fungi.

Plants Beyond Empire is a new series of conversations starting in February 2024, as part of Bonington Gallery’s Formations programme, in partnership with NTU’s Postcolonial and Global Studies Research Group. The events will explore a range of creative and community interventions aimed at understanding complex human-plant entanglements within postcolonial Britain and beyond.

**No audio between 04:36 and 07:46, presenter repeats the start of her talk after the screening of the film later in the event. At 22:42 the speaker cut out, which has been cut from the video. This causes a small pause that lasts 6 seconds**

Photo credit: Film Stills, Freddy Griffiths. Courtesy Rebecca Beinart.

Alongside our current exhibition, history is a living weapon in yr hand, join us for a free online In-conversation event between our current exhibitor Onyeka Igwe and Dr. Jenni Ramone, Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Global Literatures at NTU.

Together, they will explore topics related to Igwe’s wider practice and the ideas, research and development that informs both the exhibition and Igwe’s 2023 film, A Radical Duet, that is central to the installation.

On the evening there will be the opportunity to pose questions.

Please note this is a rescheduled event that is now streaming online only.

Coinciding with The Art Schools of the East Midlands exhibition, join us for a free event that explores the role of British art schools in shaping fashion, music and club culture over the last 40-50 years.

We will be joined by esteemed writer and curator Paul Gorman, who will discuss his work’s engagement with the significant role played by art schools, their educators and attendees in the broader culture.

Join us as we explore this past and consider it against the wider influence of the notion of the ‘art school’ on other forms of cultural and creative production.

Photo of Paul Gorman by Toby Amies.

Join us for a free, online talk between Irene Lusztig and Patricia Francis – part of the When I Dare to be Powerful conference.

Patricia Francis and filmmaker Irene Lusztig will explore and discuss the value of archive in bringing voices and their subjective truths from the past into the present. Irene will also show extracts from a couple of her films including her latest release, Richland.

This is the final in the series of online talks and podcast conversations we have been having as part of the When I Dare To Be Powerful in-person international conference.

Bio:

Irene Lusztig is a filmmaker, visual artist, archival researcher, and amateur seamstress. Her film and video work mines old images and technologies for new meanings in order to reframe, recuperate, and reanimate forgotten and neglected histories. Often beginning with rigorous research in archives, her work brings historical materials into conversation with the present day, inviting viewers to explore historical spaces as a way to contemplate larger questions of politics, ideology, and the production of personal, collective, and national memories. Much of Irene’s current work is centred on public feminism, language, and histories of women and women’s bodies, including her debut feature Reconstruction (2001) the feature length archival film essay The Motherhood Archives (2013) and the ongoing web-based Worry Box Project (2011). 

Born in England to Romanian parents, Irene grew up in Boston and has lived in France, Italy, Romania, China, and Russia. Her work has been screened around the world, including at the Berlinale, MoMA, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Anthology Film Archives, Pacific Film Archive, Flaherty NYC, IDFA Amsterdam, RIDM Montréal, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, and BFI London Film Festival and on television in the US, Europe, and Taiwan. She has received grants from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, Massachusetts Cultural Council, LEF Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts, and Sustainable Arts Foundation and has been awarded fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Flaherty Film Seminar, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Harvard’s Film Study Center. She is the 2016-17 recipient of a Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship in Portugal. She teaches filmmaking at UC Santa Cruz where she is Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media; she lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains.