VideOdyssey at Toxteth TV
£6 / Pay What You Can
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To launch Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s newly commissioned film And still, it remains, join Arwa and artist Leila Gamaz for this special evening of artist film screenings and discussion, moderated by poet, Amina Atiq.
And still, it remains is a newly commissioned film by the artist filmmakers Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah that will launch at this event.
Between 1960 and 1966, France tested and detonated a series of nuclear bombs in the Algerian desert. These explosions poisoned the land with radioactive material, inflicting devastating – and permanent – ecological and humanitarian harm.
In 2021, radioactive sand from the Sahara was blown from the Algerian desert back to France by sweeping winds. This meteorological event served as a reminder that the environmental legacies of colonialism cannot be forgotten or contained.
Filmed in a village in the Algerian Sahara, the work features interviews with residents who are surrounded by ancient rock art and the legacies of these tests. Exploring their own migration to the area, and the impacts of the nuclear tests, Aburawa and Shah’s film asks how people live with the afterlife of toxic colonialism?
Artist Leila Gamaz shares stories that create opportunities for healing losses experienced by the diaspora. This encompasses memories of and held by landscapes, species, and bodies. Leila will screening a recent film work, followed by a moderated discussion by Amina Atiq that will draw out shared themes between both films, including climate justice and colonialism.
And still, it remains is commissioned by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.
Supported using funds from Arts Council England.
With thanks to LUX.
Suitable for ages +16.
Access: This venue is accessible. Please email admin@arabicartsfestival.co.uk for any access requests.
Biographies
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah are a filmmaking duo dedicated to examining legacies of colonialism such as race, migration and the climate crisis. Their work includes a documentary on the data journalist Mona Chalabi, an interactive exploring the legacy of colonialism at Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan and their work has been exhibited at Humber Street Gallery, Phillida Reid Gallery and the National Gallery of Art in the US. Their latest film, the critically acclaimed ‘I Carry It With Me Everywhere’ was commissioned as part of the Brent Biennial 2022.
Together, Aburawa and Shah co-founded Other Cinemas, an award-winning project dedicated to showcasing the work of Black and non-white filmmakers in their neighbourhood in London. Other Cinemas’ work includes free community screenings; and creating networks for Black and non-white filmmakers to learn and collaborate through a free, year-long, alternative film school.
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/resource/the-end-of-the-world-is-never-the-end-of-everything/
Leila Gamaz is an Algerian-English writer and artist living between Morocco and Bristol. Through a combination of interviews, archival research and collective exploration, Gamaz’s stories create opportunities for healing losses experienced by the diaspora. This encompasses memories of and held by landscapes, species and bodies. Her work ritualises and remembers our collective past, building upon it to imagine alternative futures. Coming from a long line of great storytellers, this deep interest has compelled Gamaz towards Morocco. In the last year Gamaz has been living amongst and researching oral traditions, whilst learning Darija and Tamazight along the way – the languages of her ancestors.
Amina Atiq is a Yemeni-British poet, performance artist, creative-educational practitioner and award-winning community activist. Awarded Steve Biko Young Achievers, featured in the 100 Inspirational Women of Merseyside, Future List 2022 of Northern Woman awards and finalist of BBC Words First. Atiq is former artist fellow of Weston Jerwood Creative, Humboldt Foundation Residency, Roots & Routes (Germany & Holland), Erasmus+ Theatre-markers for Social Change (Hungary), Queensland Poetry Festival (Australia), Imperial War Museum and many more.
Currently an Anti-racism member for Curious Minds & Diversity Action Group for the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres. Poet in residence University College of London & Norfolk Ponds Project working on the secret Life of Pondsand Museum of Colour, These Things Matter Exhibition. Artist fellow of Metal Culture producing a new upcoming creative campaign, HijabSpeaks. Writer facilitator for the National Literacy Trust: Social Action Writing Project & Family Art Club for St Helens Culture Borough of Culture. Upcoming appearances at The National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome, Writing on The Wall Festival 2023 & Migration Matters Festival
Featured on Poetry Please, BBC 4 Radio, Arab News, Cordite Poetry Review, Queensland Poetry Festival: Use Words First (Wrecking Ball Press), BBC Bitesize: A Letter to My Mother, John Moores Painting Prize 2020 (The Double Negative), A Lovely Poetry Festival, The Independent, Just Beyond Reach (Sutton Manor, Metal Southend), Not Quite Right for Us (Flipped Eye Publisher, Speaking Volumes), TEDx Liverpool: My Home-Heart Land. The Portico Library: Rewriting the North. Campaigning Against the Arms Trade: A Portrait of Resistance. British Muslim Tv: @the Warehouse, and many more
Instagram @aminaatiqartist
Twitter: @AminaAtiqpoetry
Venue location:
VideOdyssey, Toxteth TV, 37-45 Windsor St, Toxteth, Liverpool L8 1XE
Image: Still from And still it remains. Courtesy of Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah.
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