The question at the heart of the Screening Rights initiative, and that has become my mantra in various research n' outreach settings, is: 'What is the potential of film to affect personal, social and political change?  Here, in Ramallah, it takes on special meaning for me as the compulsory 'located-ness' of those asking the question and the burdens of … Continue reading Palestinian Filmmaking Project Day 1

First Screening Rights event for 2016 @ The Electric Cinema on Sunday 22nd May at 3pm. Shout: Queer Arts and Culture will be screening Oriented (2015), introduced by Michele Aaron.       Oriented by British Director Jake Witzenfeld introduces us to three gay Palestinians living in Tel Aviv.  Last summer, I had the pleasure … Continue reading

Hooligan Sparrow (2016), Nanfu Wang's impressive first film, touched a lot of nerves last night in the Curzon Soho, London, where it opened the HRW festival. Skillfully interweaving the banality of Women Rights activists' everyday lives and the enormity of the corruption, censorship and rights abuses in China that they relentlessly contest, and suffer from, it might be … Continue reading Opening Night at Human Rights Watch Film Festival

It's nearly 7 months since our first public event at the mac, back in early January, when we held a panel discussion following the screening of Concerning Violence. A couple of other events followed and building on the momentum of these, the film festival idea was born. Birmingham seems the perfect place to launch such a festival - with … Continue reading Less than a week to go

The first Screening Rights Film festival will take place at the MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) from 9-11 July 2015. Special screenings of acclaimed Social Justice films from around the world will be accompanied by Q&As and panel discussions with directors, producers, activists and academics.

We screened Jocelyn Ford's documentary on Thursday 5th February to a small, animated and international audience at the Mockingbird Theatre. The panel brought together an interesting, and highly interdisciplinary, group of people. It was chaired by Naomi Standen, and included Martin Rew, Sarah Dauncey and me (Michele Aaron). Putting the film in the context of contemporary social history (as well as the … Continue reading Jocelyn Ford’s documentary about a Tibetan Mother’s experience in Beijing.

A lively discussion ensued from the screening of the film Concerning Violence at MAC Birmingham on January 9th.  The panellists - Robert Beckford, Professor of Theology and Culture in the African Diaspora at Canterbury Christ Church College, Dima Saber, Senior Researcher in Media and Social Change in the Middle East at BCU, and Kehinde Andrews, Senior Lecturer in … Continue reading Panel discussion on ‘Concerning Violence’ (Göran Hugo Olsson, 2014)

There has been considerable excitement about Olsson's new film and why wouldn't there be? It brings Frantz Fanon's work to the big screen for big audiences with an unashamed yet nuanced polemical stance. So why are some, albeit few, calling it yet another example of solipsistic filmmaking by a European director?  Is it doing something new and how … Continue reading How good is ‘Concerning Violence’? And what does ‘good’ even mean?

Friday 9th January 2015 8.15pm at the mac Birmingham  Concerning Violence Dir. Göran Olsson, English (narration) | 2014 "a prickly, passionate call to arms" - Time Out Narrated by Lauryn Hill, Concerning Violence is both an archive-driven documentary covering the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, as well as … Continue reading Concerning Violence screening and Q&A at mac Birmingham