Black History Month at Plymouth Arts Cinema

17th October 2024

Plymouth Arts Cinema is participating in Black History month with a day of films and talks on Saturday 26 October, with Support from Cornwall and Devon Creative Collective (CoDeCC CIC).

Black History Month 2024 focuses upon the contributions of global majority communities across the UK as storytellers, historians and custodians of cultural heritage.

Written and directed by contemporary black filmmakers, these films explore the rich, complex and diverse experiences and histories of individuals and groups living in Britain and British Overseas Territories.

‘These films offer a rare and unique opportunity to celebrate Black History Month by showcasing documentaries, experimental narratives and short films by black female filmmakers that explore black cultural heritage and efforts to decolonise Black history and archeology, whilst also providing fascinating glimpses into the varied experiences of black female identity and girlhood.’ Helen Thomas, CoDeCC CIC (www.codecc.co.uk)

With films from creators of British-Nigerian (Ngozi Onwurah and Yero Timi-Biu), British-Jamaican (Maureen Blackwood), Somalian (Warda Mohamed), Namibian (Annina Van Neel), black-American heritage (S. Pearl Sharp) and French-Senagalese (Mati Diop) heritage, these films retrieve lives and cultural histories often buried under the radar to remind us of the power of creative community engagement, friendship and activism.

Check out the full schedule of films for the day: 

Snapshot: Short Film Programme (12A) Sat 26 Oct, 3pm

SNAPSHOT turns the spotlight to Black girls who are coming of age on their own terms. Through these intimate explorations of their interior lives, we find joy in their adventures, in the refreshing variety of perspectives they have to offer, and in storytelling that simply lets Black girls be girls. T A P E, with the support of the BFI, presents a programme of radical archive and critical contemporary offerings with this series of short films which capture and celebrate the multi-faceted experiences of Black Girlhood. In a world where Black girls are too often relegated to sidekick or trauma narratives, we bring to the fore the audacious, the hilarious and the beguiling.

A Story of Bones (12A) + introduction with Helen Thomas Sat 26 Oct, 5.30pm

For centuries Saint Helena has existed in near isolation from the rest of the world, a potent symbol of Britain’s colonial past, epitomized by its most famous tourist attraction – Napoleon Bonaparte’s empty tomb. As the Environmental Officer for Saint Helena’s troubled £285m airport project, Annina Van Neel learned of the island’s most terrible atrocity, an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans. It is one of the most significant traces of the transatlantic slave trade still on earth. Haunted by this historical injustice, Annina fights alongside renowned African American preservationist Peggy King Jorde and a group of disenfranchised islanders, many of them descendants of enslaved people, for the proper memorialization of these forgotten victims. The resistance they face exposes disturbing truths about the UK’s colonial past – and present.

Dahomey (PG) + Intro Sat 26 Oct, 8pm

Preview screening from acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics), Dahomey is a poetic and immersive work of art that delves into real perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination and restitution. Set in November 2021, the documentary charts 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey that are due to leave Paris and return to their country of origin: the present-day Republic of Benin. Using multiple perspectives Diop questions how these artefacts should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence. Winner of the coveted Golden Bear prize at the 2024 Berlinale, Dahomey is an affecting though altogether singular conversation piece that is as spellbinding as it is essential. £4 Budget Tickets We want everyone to be able to enjoy a trip to the cinema. There’s no better way to watch a film than to make an event of it and see it on the big screen, with an audience. You won’t be asked any questions if you choose this price point, just choose the Budget Ticket option when you book.