June Givanni on John Akomfrah

June Givanni and John Akomfrah have known each other for the full length of their 40-year careers. Givanni is an acclaimed curator and the founder of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive (JGPACA), a resource for the promotion of African and African diaspora cinema and culture, of which Akomfrah is a longtime patron. This year, she won the 2024 BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. This personal essay was published in Plaster‘s special edition print with John Akomfrah ahead of the Venice Biennale, available to buy now.

June Givanni  on John Akomfrah

Listening All Night to the Rain, John’s wonderful proposition for the British Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale feels like his creative journey is coming full circle, an echoing of the last 40 years.

John and I first worked together on the Third Eye Festival of Third World Cinema with the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1983 and the related 1984 anti-racist film programme resource for schools and communities. These were important starting points for us both. One year later, we, and others, continued the Third Eye agenda with the Which Way Forward conference at the National Film Theatre.

Like many in the spheres of film, art and ideas, I see John as a valued friend and colleague and a hugely talented and insightful artist and filmmaker. He is committed to valuing not just the art and industry of cinema but its enormous cultural purpose across society, history and philosophy and its potential to analyse and shape the impact of social events, the world of Pan-African cinema and, crucially, humanity. To me, that is what is at the heart of his work; a passion for seeing the world and presenting it in unexpected and original ways – whether it’s natural phenomena or complex philosophical analyses of the social world in which we live.

John understands the significance of global history – especially Black history and culture. His explorations and expressions appeal both to his audience and creative collaborators who are encouraged to view the world through cinema in new ways. The wide geographic scope of his understanding of the world, and his continuous exploration of it in collaboration with others, has led him on a rich journey. For example, his use of the natural world to learn from, be inspired by and seek to understand has been significant, particularly in his hypnotic 2017 film, Purple.

It is telling that the most prestigious prize for documentaries in the UK – the Grierson Award for Best Documentary – went to John and the Black Audio Film Collective’s 1986 film Handsworth Songs. One year later, the film won the Paul Robeson Award for best film from the African diaspora at the 1987 Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso, recognising excellence both in the art of cinema and significance in presenting crucial storytelling of the Pan-African world.

We worked together frequently, and notably again in 1995 as part of the BFI’s Pan-Institute Screen Griots programme (Griot is an African term for those with deep wisdom and knowledge – in this case, of film) organised by the BFI’s African Caribbean Unit, who programmed the film component of the UK’s year-long Africa95 festival of art and culture. The Screen Griots Conference which was central to the programme involved John’s collaboration with myself and Gaylene Gould and other key filmmakers, cultural theorists and critics to shape this flagship event. It included a keynote presentation by the eminent Professor Sylvia Wynter and the event was later reported in the book Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema, which was eloquently and insightfully introduced by filmmaker Imruh Bakari and edited by myself.

John served as a governor of the BFI between 2001-2007 and his work continued to rise in significance not only in terms of its artistic achievement but also its capacity to advocate for institutional responses to Black film and film more broadly. I am continuously astounded by the range of his work and that of his production company Smoking Dogs Films.

In 2012, John and I worked together to curate Africa on the Piazza, an outdoor screening programme in Covent Garden, part of Yinka Shonibare’s Deloitte Ignite Africa Weekend. In the same year, John created one of his most important films, The Unfinished Conversation, which focused on the life and work of the great scholar Stuart Hall, who was a key inspiration for, and supporter of, numerous Black artists, independent filmmakers and curators.

Most recently, our mutual respect for each other’s work combined when we featured the earliest work of the Black Audio Film Collective in ‘PerAnkh – The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive’, an exhibition at London’s Raven Row Gallery in 2023. Originally created as slide-tapes from 1983-84, the two-part piece, Expeditions 1: Signs of Empire and Expeditions 2: Images of Nationality was shown in full glory in a dedicated space where visitors could appreciate BAFC’s exquisite sound and image delivery.

The title of John’s forthcoming Venice show and the fact that sound will play a significant role leaves me impatient to experience what is bound to be an extraordinary experience.