John Akomfrah: Memory Rooms

Pera Film presents an online selection of the single-channel works of the artist, director, curator John Akomfrah as part of SENKRON 'Simultaneous Video Exhibitions'. Co-founder of Black Audio Film Collective, Akomfrah weaves together original footage with archival material to create stirring, layered narratives that juxtapose personal and historical memory, past and present, and environmental and human crises.

In the program that will take place online between April 15 – 30; Handsworth Songs, a film essay on racial and social turmoil in 1980s England and the urban riots of 1985; Testament, which deals with the situation of post-colonial societies through the character of Abena, a former activist and new news presenter who returned to contemporary Ghana for the first time in years after the 1966 coup; Who Needs A Heart, a series of micro-narratives that follow the lives of a group of friends and lovers from 1965 to 1975; Speak Like A Child chronicling the relationships between three friends whose lives are irreversibly changed as a result of an event out of control, and The Nine Muses, which stylized and authentically chronicles the history of the mass exodus from Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia to rebuild post-war England.

The program will be streamed at film.peramuzesi.org.tr between April 15 -30, and only be accessible to online audiences in Turkey. As per legal regulations, all our screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age, unless stated otherwise.