This screening will include ‘African Oasis’ (1982) made by Yugesh Walia with Birmingham Film Workshop, which acts as a portrait of Handsworth Cultural Centre, as well as ‘Nation’s Finest Putting Down Roots and Birthing’ (2022) by Beverley Bennett which juxtaposes imagery of young black gymnasts and discussions of policing, ‘commonwealth’, and community in the context of a wider BLK Art Group research project.
This event locates these two video works as a means of demonstrating the black cultural production that has been bound up innately in the West Midlands, Marlene Smith’s home region.
