Word. Sound. Image with Imruh Bakari and Eugene Skeef

Join us with filmmaker Imruh Bakari and musican and poet Eugene Skeef for the closing event of the exhibition 'George Hallett: Home and Exile'.

This evening will be a celebration of the late photographer who passed on 1 July 2020, and of his documentation of South African jazz musicians, visual artists and writers who have contributed to British culture. The programme includes the screening of Blue Notes and Exiled Voices by Bakari, charting the experience of South African exiled musicians who emigrated to Britain in the 1960s and 70s, including interviews and live performance from Hugh Masekela, Louis Moholo, the Brotherhood of Breath that were also photographed by Hallett.

Eugene Skeef, who features in several of Hallett's photograhs in the exhibition, will share his experience of exile, memories of Hallett and do a participatory performance including poetry and music.

The event will be accompanied by a slideshow entitled Jazz in Exile, created by George Hallett in 2014, a digital collection of Hallett's photographs of South African jazz.

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Biographies

Imruh Bakari is a filmmaker, writer, and creative industries consultant. He is co-director of the June Givanni Panafrican Cinema Archive.

Bakari studied at Bradford College of Art and is a graduate of the National Film & Television School, Beaconsfield. He also completed postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He teaches on the BA (Hons) Film Studies and BA (Hons) Film Production programmes.

From 1999-2004 he was Festival Director of Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) and is a founder/director of Tanzania Screenwriters Forum. He was a founder/director of Ceddo, the film and video production and training organization in London (1982-93). He is a former member (2012-15) of the Advisory Council of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI); and currently a member Tanzania Independent Producers Association (TAIPA), and the Editorial Board of the Journal of African Cinemas.

His professional work includes a number of film and television credits, which include Riots and Rumours of Riots, Street Warriors, The Mark of the Hand, Blue Notes and Exiled Voices and African Tales. In 2013 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Afrika Filmfestival in Leuven, Belgium for his work in African Cinema.

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Eugene Skeef is a South African percussionist, composer, poet, educationalist and animateur who has lived in London since 1980. He also works in conflict resolution, acts as a consultant on cultural development, teaches creative leadership and is a broadcaster. As a young activist he worked alongside the anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko and co-led a nation-wide literacy campaign teaching in schools, colleges, and communities across South Africa.

Skeef is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has served on the board of directors of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). He is on the advisory committee of Sound Junction, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s award-winning interactive multimedia educational project. In March 2005 he performed with his Abantu Ensemble at Buckingham Palace and was presented to the Queen as part of the historic Music Day to celebrate the diversity of culture in Britain. In June 2008 Eugene and Richard Bissill’s, Excite! an orchestral commission by the LPO, premiered at the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre, London.

Eugene is the Artistic Director of Quartet of Peace which uses music to bring about peaceful resolutions to conflict and poverty, with a special focus on young people. In 2010 his collaborative project The Battle Of The Wordsmiths, with writer Tunde Olatunji and producers Blue Hippo Media, was shortlisted for the PRS New Music Award.