Southall Black Sisters marks 40th Anniversary with Film Curation at UK Asian Film Festival 2019

Feminist-focused Festival Celebrates 21 Years With ‘Revolution’ Theme

 Championing South Asian feminist filmsand supporting 

Pioneering, female artists and auteurs

To mark the 40^thanniversary of Southall Black Sisters, one of the UK’s leading organisations for black and minority women, UK Asian Film Festival, the world’s longest running South Asian film festival outside of India, will be screening four films curated by the organisation, one for each decade of SBS history. The selected films will depict the central, political themes that have informed the work and campaigns of Southall Black Sisters and reflect the migrant experience in this country.

The Southall Black Sisters curation will feature a screening of biographical drama Provoked (2006, Dir. Jag Mundhra) on Saturday 30^th March, Rich Mix London. The film is based on the story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, an Indian woman who came to international attention after burning her husband to death in 1989 in the UK, in response to ten years of physical, psychological and sexual abuse and marital rape. After initially being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Ahluwalia’s conviction was later overturned on grounds of inadequate counsel and replaced with voluntary manslaughter and diminished responsibility. Her retrial came to light after major campaigning by Southall Black Sisters. This will be followed by a screening of Burning An Illusion (1981, Dir. Menelik Shabazz). The film about a young, British-born black woman’s love life, mostly shot inLondon’s Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove communities, was only the second British feature to have been made by a black director, described by British writer, film and social historian, Stephen Bourne, as “the first British film to give a black woman a voice of any kind.”

The screenings will be followed by a Discussion entitled Struggle Not Submission with guest speakers including Kiranjit Ahluwalia, domestic violence survivor on whom the film Provoked is based; Pragna Patel, Director, Southall Black Sisters and Founder, Women Against Fundamentalism; Rahila Gupta, writer, journalist and Southall Black Sisters management committee member; and Menelik Shabazz, director, Burning An Illusion.

Continuing the Southall Black Sisters curation on Saturday 6^th April, Rich Mix London will be a screening of My Beautiful Launderette (1981, Dir. Stephen Frears); and Brick Lane (2007, Dir. Sarah Gavron). Based on Hanif Qureshi’s screenplay, My Beautiful Laundrette depicts an Asian community that defies pious stereotypes and a younger generation that defiantly asserts a non-conformist sexuality in the face of prejudice. Pathbreaking for its time, it offered a timely critique of the race, class and gender upheavals under Thatcherism whilst also anticipating the demise of progressive secular identities. Based on Monica Ali’s debut novel, Brick Lane picks up on some of the themes of defiant sexuality and secular identities in the face of rising fundamentalism. It focuses on a newly arrived migrant woman from Bangladesh whose nostalgia for home is compounded by an unsatisfactory relationship with her husband. She is driven into an affair with a young man who responds to the racism of white youth in Tower Hamlets by embracing religious fundamentalism.

The screenings will be followed by a Panel Discussion entitled Subversion and Dissent, featuring guest speakers including Sukhwant Dhaliwal, Founding Member, Feminist Dissent; Geeta Sahgal, writer, journalist and human rights activist; and Monica Ali, writer and novelist, Brick Lane.

Southall Black Sisters has been in existence since 1979. In 1982/3, it set up a not for profit advocacy and campaigning centre for black and minority women facing violence and the erosion of their fundamental human rights.

At a time of significant change,UK Asian Film Festival marks its 21^st anniversary with a the theme of Revolution. Historically known as Tongues on Fire and then London Asian Film Festival, the festival is also synonymous with championing South Asian feminist film sand supporting pioneering, female artists and auteurs.

The screening of nine, award-winning, Malayalam shorts directed by powerful Indian women curated by Archana Padmini in association with Women In Cinema Collective and Minimal Cinema, spreads the message of feminism and gender sensitivity.  The Women In Cinema Collective has taken a firm stand in support of a colleague who has survived a sexual assault. The series, 9 Pencinemakal, will be screened on Friday 5^th April, Queen Mary, University of London.  

 UK Asian Film Festival 2019 will run in five cities across the UK, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, London and Manchester, 27^th March – 4^th May 2019, supported by the BFI with National Lottery funding and Regional Screen Scotland.

Full festival programme details via: www.ukaff.com

Festival Dates: 

London: 27^th March – 7^th April

Edinburgh: 29^th March – 31^st March
Glasgow: 21^st March – 4^th April

Leicester: 3^rd April – 6^th April

Manchester: 30^th April – 4^th May