The Birth of a Nation

Update: Tickets still available: http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/ticket-availability

The programme for this years BFI London Film Festival runs from 5-16th October 2016. Every year, EC Forde and I try and outline the films that interest us. Some will get a big cinema release, others, a smaller cinema release, and some you may catch at other festivals and screening events. The rest may just vanish from our radar, with the hope that they pop up somewhere in the future (e.g. TV/DVD/Event). So this is the perfect opportunity to see films from around the world. Particularly interesting this year are the number of films we wanted to list. 33 features, and 13 short films.

They take us on a journey through, Mali, Nigeria, Chad, Botswana, South Africa, America, Uganda, Haiti, France and the UK.

See our selection below and find out more on the BFI 60^th London Film Festival website.

EC Forde & Jammie xx

Feature Films

The 13^th Director Ava DuVernay presents a searing look at a century of race relations in America in this far-reaching and powerful documentary.	Thu 6
76 A terse political drama from Nigeria deals with the ramifications for a group linked to the assassination in 1976 of General Murtala Mohammed.	Sat 15
All This Panic Seven New York teens emerge from the turbulent ‘panic’ years into nearly adulthood in this astonishingly intimate documentary.	Fri 7, Sat 8
American Honey Andrea Arnold dazzles with a sun-soaked and tune-filled epic about door-to-door teenage magazine sellers travelling the American highways.	Fri 7, Sat 8, Tue 11
Arrival Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner star as the humans who make first contact with extraterrestrial visitors in this richly textured sci-fi from director Denis Villeneuve.	Mon 10, Tue 11, Thu 13
Being 17 Hormonal aggression sparks an intense enmity between two 17-year-old schoolboys in the snowy Pyrenees, until the true connection between them surprises everyone.	Mon 10, Tue 11, Sun 16
The Birth of a Nation This explosive Sundance-winning drama follows Nat Turner, a preacher who became the radical leader of an uprising against slavery.	Tue 11, Wed 12, Thu 13
Born In Flames Lizzie Borden’s provocative feminist sci-fi returns to our screens and has lost none of its power.	Sat 15
Chi-Raq Spike Lee reimagines Aristophanes’ ancient Greek play Lysistrata as a dazzling modern-day hip-hop musical set in Chicago.	Sat 15, Sun 16
Daughters of the Dust [Treasure] Julie Dash’s groundbreaking Daughters of the Dust remains urgent and poetic and continues to resonate, most recently inspiring Beyoncé’s Lemonade.	Sat 8, Sat 15
Divines The gangster genre is given a shrewd feminist makeover in this arresting debut about a young girl embarking on a life of crime.	Thu 6, Fri 7, Tue 11
Fonko A pulsating journey through the electronic urban musical underground of Africa that looks at how the new sounds are defining a generation, from the team behind Black Power Mixtape (LFF2011).	Sat 8, Mon 10
Hissein Habré, A Chadian Tragedy Mahamet-Saleh Haroun (Darrat) returns to the theme of the personal and societal responsibility with this searing documentary about ex-Chadian President Hissein Habré.	Sat 8, Sun 9
Hospital [Treasure] An outstanding restoration of Frederick Wiseman’s unforgettably gripping documentary portrait of New York’s Metropolitan Hospital.	Sun 9
I called him Morgan Part true-crime tale, part love story, this vivid portrait of legendary hard bop jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan is an all-out musical treat (from the director of My Name is Albert Ayler).	Fri 7
The Illinois Parables Eleven parables relay histories of settlement, removal, technological breakthrough, violence, messianism and resistance, all occurring somewhere in the state of Illinois.	Mon 10
Jewel’s Catch One A rousing doc about LA’s first black LGBT disco, defiantly opened in 1973 and beloved by music royalty from Sylvester to Madonna.	Sat 8, sun 9
Layla M The gripping and powerful story of a young girl’s path towards radicalisation from director Mijke de Jong (Bluebird).	Tue 11, Thu 13
Lovetrue Following her groundbreaking debut Bombay Beach, director Alma Har’el returns with another genre-bending, visually stunning gem about our perception of love and relationships, including the psyche of Victory, a young black woman in New York City pondering family bonds and faith.	Sat 8, Mon 10
Mimosas A mesmerising combination of travelogue, mysticism and documentary from Spanish director Oliver Laxe, as a young man goes on a mission in the Atlas Mountains.	Thu 6, Fri 7
Moonlight Based on the play ‘In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue’, Moonlight follows Chiron as he finds his identity and sexuality in Miami in the 1980s.	Thu 6, Fri 7, Sat 8
A Moving Image The gentrification of London’s Brixton is examined in this probing and stylistically ambitious debut feature.	Sat 8, Fri 14, Sun 16
Nocturama French director Bertrand Bonello imagines Paris in a state of apocalypse, in a provocative, troubling response to the contemporary age of terror.	Sat 15, Sun 16
On Call La Permanence Filmed in a walk-in service for asylum seekers in an hospital near Paris, this timely documentary captures with great humanity dozens of personal stories.	Wed 12, Fri 14
The Pass Two ‘straight’ footballers share a kiss in this powerful chamber piece which opened BFI Flare earlier this year.	Wed 12, Fri 14
Queen of Katwe The powerful true life tale of one girl’s determination to escape from poverty in Uganda by becoming a chess champion, directed by Mira Nair and starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong’o and newcomer Madina Nalwanga.	Sun 9, Mon 10, Wed 12
The Revolution Won’t Be Televised Rama Thiaw’s film taps into an example of grassroots political action in Senegal, where a group of disenfranchised activists decide to campaign against that country’s elite.	Sun 9, Mon 10
Stolkholm My Love Neneh Cherry, director Mark Cousins (I am Belfast) and cinematographer Christopher Doyle create an inventive docu-style fiction and a love song to the Swedish city.	Tue 11, Wed 12
Those Who Jump Les Sauteurs “I exist because I film” – the compelling first-hand account of an African migrant enduring great hardship to reach Europe and make a better life.	Thu 13, Sat 15
A United Kingdom Amma Asante (Belle, A Way of Life) opens the Festival with this impassioned drama depicting an interracial romance that changed the world.	Wed 5, Thu 6, Tue 11
The Wedding Ring Zin’naariyâ! A female-directed and rare film from Niger, about a privileged young woman who comes back home, in the sultanate of Zinder, after studying in Paris to discover the truth of the relationships between women and men in her society.	Fri 14
White Colour Black A young mixed heritage man confronts the psychological complexities of his identity in this essential, truly cinematic discovery for anyone interested in Black British cinema.	Sat 15
Wùlu What happens when a life of crime offers more opportunity than living an honest life? It’s a challenge Malian bus driver Ladji faces in this superb drama.	Fri 7, Sat 8

Short Films

Hollywood Disections – Sat 8

Juke – Passages From The Films of Spencer Williams – The career of African American actor, director and scriptwriter Spencer Williams re-enacted in a plotless montage film.

London Calling – Thu 13, Fri 14

Pregnant Pause – Pee. Wait. Panic. Steph is in a happy, long-term relationship, but now that she might be pregnant she has no idea what she wants.

We Love Moses – Twelve-year-old Ella’s obsession with her brother’s best friend lands her with a potent secret.

Love in a Void – Wed 5, Fri 7

Nkosi Coiffure – Eva escapes her boyfriend on the street of Brussels’ Congolese neighbourhood. She finds solace in an afro hair salon. Initially, at least.

New Kind of Kick – Fri 7, Sat 8

The Best Last Best Plane Ride Ever – October, 1986. The NY Mets beat the Houston Astros. This animation recreates their post-game airplane celebration: three hours of unbridled chaos.

Returning and Repressing – Sun 9

Ears, Nose and Throat – While under a medical examination, a modest woman unburdens her traumatic witnessing of the shooting of a man by his friend.

Liliesleaf Farm Mayibuye: In Search of the Spectres of History – Using double screen, the filmmaker juxtaposes her domestic family history with that of Nelson Mandela prior to his arrest.

On a Wing and a Prayer – A recreation of the 31-mile walk of refugee Abdul Rahman Haroun through the Eurotunnel, only for him to be arrested under an arcane Victorian railway law.

Reluctantly Queer – A young Ghanaian man confesses his confusion around his sexuality and his desire to please his mother.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Wed 12

The Girl Who Danced With the Devil (A moça que dançou com o Diabo) – A girl from a very religious family seeks her own paradise.

Teen Creeps – Thu 6, Thu 13

Crystal Lake – A group of young girls take over a skate park. There, on the reclaimed ramp and with no boys around, they thrive.

The Send-Off – Emboldened by a giant block party on the evening of their high school prom, a group of students enter the night with hope for the future.

The Past is the Present Too – Fri 14

The Sea is History (work in progress) – The Sea is History, made in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, is a free adaptation of the poem by Derek Walcott as a materialist and animist critique of the monumentalisation of European colonial history and its ripples into the present.