As he prepares to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale, Akomfrah talks about fleeing Ghana aged nine, the Rwanda fiasco, and creating images that shift the dial
Alternative film theater and music venue Scala’s contribution to British culture was urgent and necessary to counter the government’s regressive social policies.
In ‘Wishful Filming’, the concluding part of artist filmmaker Sir John Akomfrah’s 1993 essay series first published in BFB’s inaugural issues, he contends with the absence of confidence around a broader question: how do we consider Black British film? Thirty years on, BFI curator Xavier Pillai re-examines that inquiry and explores evolutions within the experimental terrain of artists’ moving image.