Film artist Hussein Shariffe was a pioneer of Sudanese independent and experimental film. He was also a vocal advocate of anti-colonial and democratic resistance. This study day includes screenings from his selected works, including Tigers Are Better Looking (1979, 21min), an adaptation of Jean Rhys story that is also a commentary on London’s African presence, and The Dislocation of Amber (1975, 32min), an experimental film set in the Sudanese port city of Suakin. Film historians and curators will consider Shariffe’s legacy in dialogue with the filmmaker’s daughter Eiman Hussein and will present perspectives from the ongoing archival retrieval and re-circulation of his work, both within and beyond Sudan.

Programme

12:00 – Introduction: Eiman Hussein, Metanoia Institute, London; Erica Carter, King’s College London

12:20-13:30 – Panel 1: Sudan 1975: Hussein Shariffe and experimental practice
Screening: The Dislocation of Amber (1975, 32min)
Panel: Awa Konaté, Culture Art Society (CAS); Nikolaus Perneczky, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)

14:10-15:20 – Panel 2: London 1979. Chair Erica Carter, King’s College London
Screening: Tigers are Better Looking (1979, 21min)
Panel: Kulraj Phullar, King’s College London, MetFilm School, National Film and Television School; Ming Tiampo, Transnational Slade Project; Imruh Bakari, University of Winchester.

15:30-16:50 – Panel 3: Archival futures. Chair Laurence Kent, University of Bristol
Compilation screening: Drumz (Anwar Hashem, n.d.: extract 3min); The first camerawoman in the Sudan Film Unit (Sudan Film Unit, 1969: 1min); Towards a Cinema of the Incomplete (Deem bin Jumayd, Mai Nguyen, Niya Namfua, 2021: 11min)
Panel: Samar Abdelrahman, King’s College London; Kate Ashley, Sudan Memory; Umloda Ibrahim, British Film Institute.

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Header image: On Living Memories: Hussein Shariffe, National Portrait Gallery