By the start of the Jazz Age, Paris had become the centre of not just artistic expression, cultural renaissance, and radical politics but, just as importantly, a city where Black writers, intellectuals, musicians and performers gathered.

Curator Karen Alexander explores the appeal of Paris to Black Americans and reflects on why they were drawn to the French capital. Starting with singer, dancer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker, she will explore Paris as a haven for writers such as Richard Wright, Chester Himes, James Baldwin and maverick filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. In addition, feminist and cultural activist Martiniquan writer Paulette Nadal and African Cinema pioneer Sarah Maldoror were closely aligned to the Negritude movement founded by French-speaking black students and centred in Paris before being taken up as a global anti-colonial consciousness movement spearheaded by Leon G Damas and Leopold Sedar Senghor and Aime Cesaire.

This season is dedicated to the memory of Dr Roland-François Lack (1960 – 2021).

Presented as part of Future City Film Festival which takes place biennially in the autumn but had to be postponed last year due to the pandemic. It will now run through 2022 as a series of special events with the support of BFI awarding funds from National Lottery.

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