Screening

The Same Track: Preview Screening

6 Jul 2022

Regular hours

Wed, 06 Jul
10:00 – 18:00

Free admission

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Eastside Projects

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • 10 min walk from Birmingham Moor St/Birmingham New St Stations
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The Same Track is a new video work by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi that cuts together archival footage of Commonwealth Games athletes, spectators, and administrators with promotional and other film materials.

Please note that event will be held at
The Mockingbird Cinema
Gibb Street
Deritend
B9 4AA

About

The Same Track is a new video work by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi that cuts together archival footage of Commonwealth Games athletes, spectators, and administrators with promotional and other film materials. Through symbolic juxtapositions of scenes from different eras, and using tropes of public messaging, the work highlights both transformation and stasis through time.

Alternately playful and shocking, The Same Track explores the idea that the Games, including its current iteration, are implicated in an ongoing political project, centuries in the making, asking the question, 'what does it mean to gather in the name of the Commonwealth?'

At this preview screening, Thenjwe's film will be shown alongside new and recent short films made by five local filmmakers. The programme will be followed by an open discussion, hosted by Adjei Sun, and featuring a panel of local creatives, community workers, and organisers.

PROGRAMME

  • Canaan Brown: The Naval Spirit (2022)
  • Fabio Calundungo: Fly or Die (2021)
  • Brandon Orgill: We Need a Resolution (2018)
  • Jaz Morrison: EARTHSTRONG (2022)
  • Gugan Gill: Stories From Home (2022)
  • Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi's The Same Track & Commentary (2022)

The Same Track is part of Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi's multi-site video and multimedia artwork titled Equations for a Body at Rest, which tracks the history and symbolic presentation of the Commonwealth Games, and by association, the Commonwealth body itself, from its genesis in empire to the current day.

This is the first event in a series of screenings - find out more about the full programme HERE.

This screening is part of Eastside Projects’ programme for Birmingham 2022 Festival. Thenjiwe's project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and British Council. The Community Screening programme is supported by Film Hub Midlands.

Special thanks to Bertz Associates, BRMTWN, Film Birmingham & Mockingbird Cinema.

HOST

Adjei Sun (also known as a.sun) is a poet, storyteller, and community organiser based in Birmingham. He began performing poetry at 15 in 2016. In 2021, he performed for TEDx Youth Birmingham. In 2022, Adjei performed internationally at the Dubai World Expo.

As an organiser Adjei has been producing events for more than three years, to engage young people in Birmingham in causes around them. In 2022, he began a community storytelling project which creates a safe space involving the use of the arts and discussion to open conversations around masculinity, gender and mental health.

In the last three years, Adjei Sun has been using his platform to create concerts and events which support causes in inner-city Birmingham such as mental health, inclusive youth projects, and anti-knife and gun violence.

PANELLISTS

NOTE: panellists are creatives, researchers, and community organisers from various backgrounds; the opinions and political leanings of the panellists do not necessarily reflect that of the host, filmmakers, organisers, and funders.

Lexia Tomlinson (she/her)

Hasan K (he/him) describes himself as a ‘pro-people activist’, with a focus on Kashmiri resistance, and environmental awareness. Also a performance-based artist, Hasan utilises poetry, acting, and music. He works outdoors teaching bushcraft and survival skills.

A Political Science and International Relations graduate, and University of Birmingham alumnus, Hasan’s focuses are the study of decolonisation and "other" perspectives, focusing on orientalism; decolonising the Islamic frameworks and representations; the decolonisation of global spiritual practices; economic disparities and corruption; soft/hard power politics; and the western gaze forced as the default Global perspective.

Courtenay Welcome (she/her)

Vik Chandla (they/he) is an artist, designer and activist from the Black Country. Co-founder of the South Asian Arts Collective, and with a background in the Midlands' vibrant graffiti scene, they've focused on public art in recent years: "Art should be accessible to everyone, so where better than the street? Free of the grandiosity of traditional galleries, public art belongs to the public and not wealthy art dealers who use it to launder money, or institutions who as hard as they try can never really engage people on a grassroots level. It meets them where they're at and transforms their everyday environment."

FILMMAKERS

NOTE: filmmakers are from various backgrounds, and explore various themes in their films. None of the films feature profanity, sex, gore, or flashing lights; however, some may have mildly upsetting images (e.g. crying; people scared).

Any opinions or agendas expressed in the films do not necessarily reflect that of the host, panellists, organisers, and funders.

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi (b.1980, she/her) was raised in New York, Harare and Johannesburg, where she now lives. She obtained her BA from Harvard University and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Nkosi divides her time between studio work, performance, and navigating the field of art as social practice.

Fábio Calundungo (he/him) is an Angolan-Portuguese filmmaker based in Birmingham. A recent Film and Animation graduate, Calundungo is passionate about the visual language of film, and its role in storytelling. He organises shoots for principal photography, operates cameras, directs, and edits, with a particular focus on drama shorts, comedy sketches, and mockumentaries.

Canaan Brown (he/him) is an artist and designer, currently studying at Birmingham City University, and working as an Emerging Artist with Legacy West Midlands. Brown strives to advocate, exemplify, and inspire Black excellence through his art and design practice. Using film, writing, and digital media, as well as sculpture, painting, and installation, Brown employs diverse media to tell stories through his work - highlighting, celebrating, and speculating on histories, modernities, and futures.

Brown recently won the Inspirational Student of the Year Award, at Birmingham City University, and was awarded as a finalist for the Black Heritage Undergraduate of the Year Award, 2022.

Brandon Orgill (he/him) is a West-Midlands-based filmmaker with an interest in crafting realistic stories covering true topics and events, focusing more on youth culture in the UK.

Jaz Morrison (she/her) is a writer and multidisciplinary (but mainly visual) artist, exploring themes of history, social space, sustainability, and Afrofuturism. Her practice employs performance, filmmaking, collage, and storytelling. For Jaz, it's all about sense- and memory-making.

Gugan Gill’s (she/they) work can be considered a visual and poetic exploration of home, identity and time and place through the lens of feminism. Her practice-based approach to making revolves around documenting and radical (re)learning; reflecting on the wonders of everyday, capturing a sense of domestic feminism and the life story.

Please note that event will be held at 

The Mockingbird Cinema

Gibb Street

Deritend

B9 4AA

What to expect? Toggle

CuratorsToggle

Jaz Morrison

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Jaz Morrison

Gugan Gill

Fabio Calundungo

Canaan Brown

Brandon Orgill

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi

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