John Akomfrah In Conversation, Bristol
Once a 1980s radical, now an OBE-holder, documentary-maker and artist John Akomfrah is one of British film’s greats. Born in Ghana, bred in the UK, he’s made deeply political, staggeringly beautiful movies since the early 80s, when he co-founded the Black Audio Film Collective, a group who melded avant garde movie-making techniques with stories of diaspora life. Thirty years after he made the landmark Handsworth Songs, a meditative yet searing Channel 4 film about the riots that exploded in Birmingham and London in 1985, his themes of migration, memory and the relationships between the old colonial powers and the developing world have never been more pressing. Vertigo Sea, a three-screen feature about oceans and the people who travel on them, is coming to Bristol’s Arnolfini gallery this week (Sat to 10 Apr) after debuting at 2015’s Venice Biennale. Shot in Norway, the Isle of Skye and the Faroe Islands with help from the BBC’s natural history unit, it’s one of the few responses to anti-migrant hysteria to involve jellyfish, 18th-century frock coats and Moby Dick. To coincide, he’ll be speaking here to writer Anthony Downey.
CJ
Guardian Live: This Is The NHS; To Blame Or Not To Blame? London
Why does the NHS continue to loom so large in our political discourse? Perhaps because, despite decades of rampant privatisation in other areas of British life, it embodies values that no one can quite pluck up the courage to dismiss. And while it remains the last, unbreachable bastion of tax and spend, its enduring popularity suggests that other privatisations may not be set in stone, either. This week sees two talks about Nye Bevan’s baby. The Guardian’s looks to provide an overview of the problems faced by the organisation via testimony from staff, while the Museum Of London (EC2, Wed) hosts a more philosophical look at how we view medical science. Given that medicine has traditionally advanced through experimentation, it asks how damaging the blame game surrounding the NHS has become. It’s a roundabout way of addressing the politicisation of the service, which is where we came in.
The Guardian, King’s Place, N1, Thu; Museum Of London, EC2, Wed
PH
Juliet Jacques, Manchester
Journalist-turned-author Juliet Jacques first came to prominence via A Transgender Journey, her series of columns for the Guardian, in which she detailed her gender reassignment in monthly instalments over the course of two years. Since the series came to an end in 2012, she has written for numerous publications and penned a memoir, Trans, which was published last September. Interspersing her life story with cultural observations and insights into the history and politics of LGBT identity, it’s both candid and universally appealing. As part of a new series of talks called Manchester Writing, organised by the esteemed Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, she will be reading excerpts from her work as well as taking part in a Q&A session with the audience. The event will be preceded by a short fiction reading from students of the school’s MA programme.
Burgess Foundation, Chorlton Mill, Thu
HD
