For the first time, Fringe of Colour Films has invited a guest curator to programme a special event as part of the festival. Our 2023 commissioned curator is Neha Apsara, a film programmer based in Glasgow, focusing on programming stories full of joy, drama and hidden histories centred around the queer and diasporic South Asian experience.

This curated programme, Begana, features two films from the Queer South Asian and Indo-Caribbean archive, which explore themes and conversations that were far ahead of their time. The first, a portrait of Indian lesbian poet and writer Suniti Bamjoshi, by Pratibha Parmar (Flesh and Paper) and the second, a pivotal, pioneering work about the female, lesbian Indo-Caribbean perspective in exile by filmmaker Michelle Mohabeer (Coconut/Cane & Cutlass).

In this episode, Neha discusses the inspirations and influences behind the curation of this programme strand.

Inspired by Foluke Taylor’s words in Unruly Therapeutic: Black Feminist Writings and Practices in Living Room (“stop interrupting the ancestors; and let them finish their sentences; and try not to whine; and replace instructions with permissions”), multidisciplinary artist Ashanti Harris embarked on her own journey of listening. The artist, whose practice spans dance, performance, facilitation, film, installation and writing, has been researching oil since 2019. In this year, the city of Aberdeen was twinned with Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana, after the discovery of oil-producing sandstone on the Guyanese coast in 2015. This relationship founded on extraction is not new to Guyana, it is embedded in the land and its history. From the violence of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, to the industrial mining of minerals extracted from its soils and to oil production offshore, Guyana has a long and complex relationship with violent forms of extraction.

Starting from a place of pressure, intensity, and permission from the ancestors, this film poem is a stream of consciousness in words, images, movements and sounds. Recorded between Scotland, Guyana and Tanzania, Black Gold (2023) is a poetic procession to the bottom of the ocean and into the centre of the earth.

In this episode, Ashanti discusses the inspirations and influences behind the film and more.

Soundsystem culture injects this triumphant short with a rallying cry, calling on all Black boys and men who have been labelled “soft” to Wake Up! Filmmaker Daniel Bailey returns to our screens with a mission - to turn the derogatory accusation of softness on its head. In yardie culture, “yuh too soft” can mark you from childhood, the equivocation of gentleness and sensitivity with weakness and irrelevance. In this ensemble production, Soft Bwoi (2022) refuses such sentiment and Babylon itself, using folklore and imagery from Caribbean carnival culture and queerness to redefine this misconception. The concealment of emotion, embracing norms, and the repression of femininity are no longer signs of power and strength. Instead, it is in seeking the divine feminine, deep connections with one another and the rejection of toxicity that will unite Black men to find better ways to survive in this harsh but limitless world. Yes lawd!

In this episode, Daniel discusses the inspirations and influences behind the film and more.

Fringe of Colour Films is a hybrid arts festival for Black people and People of Colour. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠fringeofcolour.co.uk