Screening of HOSTILE + Q&A with director

Hostile is an award-winning feature-length documentary written, produced and directed by BAFTA-longlisted filmmaker Sonita Gale. It focuses on the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities. Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the film reveals the impact of the evolving ‘hostile environment’ – a term used by the UK government in 2012 to illustrate the atmosphere they wanted to create for migrants, with the intention of provoking them to leave of their own accord.The film explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected. After decades of hostile immigration policies, Britain has reached a crisis point. With Brexit, the Points Based Immigration System and the Nationality and Borders Bill taking effect, the film asks: once the ‘hostile environment’ has targeted all migrants, who will it extend to next?

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Sonita Gale

Chair: Federica Mazzara [University of Westminster]

**Free event. Registration required**

Sonita Gale’s debut feature documentary as director, HOSTILE, is an award-winning and BAFTA and BIFA-longlisted film exposing the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants living in the UK. Hostile has screened across the country at Picturehouse and independent cinemas, and has been selected for a number of international film festivals, including NorthWestFest Film Festival, UK Asian Film Festival, Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, Budapest Movie awards, ZagrebDox, Manchester Film Festival, Berlin Lift Off, Filmocracy Fest and the Roxbury International Film Festival. In 2021, the film debuted at Raindance Film Festival and was an official selection of Cambridge Film Festival, London Migration Film Festival, and the South London Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary Feature.

Federica Mazzara is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. Her research interests lie in the interdisciplinary fields of migration studies and cultural studies. She has also curated art installations on migration, including Nothing is Missing by Mieke Bal, and Sink Without Trace (June-July 2019, P21 Gallery). The latter, curated with artist Maya Ramsay, focuses on the issue of migrant deaths at sea. Federica is the author of Reframing Migration: Lampedusa, Border Spectacle and The Aesthetics of Subversion (Peter Lang, 2019).

Social Instagram and Twitter: Hostile: @hostiledoc Galeforce Films @galeforcefilms

Website: www.hostiledocumentary.com

The event is part of the London Summer School sponsored by the Erasmus Plus Project MIGRANTS (Project number: 610242-EPP-1-2019-1-1IT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP)