Events
The Colonial Reels project organises, hosts, cultivates and participates in a variety of events related to colonial history, film theory and practice, and the international cinema industry. See below our upcoming events and related events
The Colonial Reels project is colaborating with Afrika Eye with project member Dr Samantha Iwowo giving a talk after the screening of The Man Died (Nigeria 2024), and project lead Professor Jacqueline Maingard as part of a panel after the screening of Come Back Africa (South Africa, 1959)
Saturday 15th November -The Man Died - Arnolfini
Film start - 2:20pm. Finish - 4pm
Q&A w/ Dr Samantha Iwowo, Principal Academic, screenwriter, director and researcher - 3:40pm
Sunday 16th November - Come Back Africa - Arnolfini
Event start - 4:40pm. Event end - 6:30pm
Q&A with Film Curator Mosa Mpeta, Professor Jacqueline Maingard & musician Sisanda Myataza- 5:50pm
Dylan Thomas in Iran: Reframing colonial oil industry archive imagery
Sat 15 Nov 2025 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Join filmmaker Nariman Massoumi and archivist and researcher Rosa Méthol for a collaborative workshop exploring colonial-era oil company photographs and their legacies. Using images featured in his short documentary Pouring Water on Troubled Oil (2023, 26 min), which retraces poet Dylan Thomas’s 1951 journey through Iran, participants will rework these photographs through creative exercises with fragments of text and media
Community Cinema: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (+ Director Q&A)
19 November 2025, 6:30 pm–10:00 pm
The screening will be a followed by a panel discussion with Director Johan Grimonprez, Imruh Bakari (filmmaker/writer), Emma Sandon (Birkbeck/June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive) and Hélène Neveu Kringelbach (UCL), chaired by David Wood (UCL).
Searching the Film Archives: Activating Memories, Reflections and Histories - Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image
21 November 5.00pm - 9.00pm
Colonial Reels: Histories and Afterlives of Colonial Film Collections in collaboration with the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive presents:
An evening of screenings, discussion and debate with a focus on Africa about access to film archive and the audiovisual heritage of the African continent. Who owns the film archives? What is the market in film archive? What has happened to the archives in African countries and what is the legacy of cinema on the continent?
Two films screenings - one short and one feature film will focus our panels and audience discussion after the screenings. The introductions and panels include members of the Colonial Reels: Histories and Afterlives of Colonial Film Collections project and the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive as well as invited guests.