George Amponsah

The Hard Stop

A reflection on the 2011 killing of Mark Duggan, a young, black, British man, at the hands of London's Metropolitan Police. Duggan was pulled over early one morning, and minutes later, was shot dead. This event ignited the now-infamous Tottenham riots and made headlines around the globe, but, as so often happens, the issue soon dropped from the news. Picking up the story where the media left off, we're brought back to its roots in Duggan's neighbourhood, following his friends' fight for justice and search for meaning, while struggling against ongoing discrimination in their daily lives.

The Importance of Being Elegant

Set to the soundtrack of Papa Wemba's extraordinary music, this outrageous, funny and eye-opening film depicts the underground world of a flamboyant African cult. Papa Wemba is a well-known Congolese singer. He is also a big cheese in Le Sape, the Société des Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants, which translated into English means a society of people who spend huge amounts of money on designer clothes with the motive of making themselves as conspicuously elegant as possible. The film is a splendid evocation of Papa Wemba's music, but it is also an unusual insight into what it means to be an immigrant in contemporary Europe. The sapeur have borrowed from our own culture, creating something rich and strange and wholly Congolese. Don't miss the scene where they try on fur coats.