Institute of Contemporary Arts

Handsworth Songs + This Is Not An AIDS Ad

Further exploring the concerns of moving image work in The Secret Public exhibition, a series of screenings presenting works made by artists for whom the gathering and disseminating of information has critical and political imperatives.

The Black Audio Film Collective's first major film, Handsworth Songs is a brilliant and deeply affecting account of the Birmingham riots of 1985. Told through montage, interview footage, reportage and archival material it examines race, class and ideology in Britain's colonial history. Isaac Julien's video extends these concerns to incorporate sexuality through the excavation and re-presentation of images from the past.

This Is Not an AIDS Advertisement, Dir Isaac Julien, UK 1987, 11 mins, Colour super-8, Video Transfer, Sound. Courtesy the Artist / Victoria Miro Gallery, London.

Handsworth Songs, Dir John Akomfrah & Black Audio Film Collective, 1986, video, 58 mins

Please note

Films start at the advertised time. Doors open 15 mins prior to this. Latecomers are only admitted at the Duty Managers discretion.

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