Alberta Whittle, ‘Lagareh – The Last Born’ | Glasgow Film Theatre

20 September 2022

An image still from the film Lagareh of a Black dancer wearing a kilt and a white shirt. The dancer holds two long knives in her hands and stands on green grass with a blue sky behind her and a castle-like building to her left.
Alberta Whittle, Lagareh – The Last Born, (film still – single channel video), 2022, Photographer Matthew Arthur Williams, © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist & Scotland+Venice

MEMORY | ALBERTA WHITTLE IN CONVERSATION WITH DR PEGGY BRUNACHE

LUX Scotland and Scotland + Venice are delighted to host the UK premiere of ​‘Lagareh – The Last Born’ at Glasgow Film Theatre, the first event of a screening tour that brings the work to six venues across Scotland.

‘Lagareh’ – which translates from the Mandinka language as ​‘The Last Born’ – is a work anchored around theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love. Shot in Scotland, England, Barbados, Sierra Leone and Italy, the film melds a collection of scenes that give focus to the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose individual acts of resistance are bound together through the artist’s conceptual storytelling. The artist situates Black love in proximity with historical sites of trauma, re-inscribed with rage, hope and exhaustion. Gestures, rituals and moments of intimacy are poignantly underpinned by a deep reflection on grief, loss and mourning, a resolute reminder of the trauma inflicted upon the Black body and of white privilege and power.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist, Alberta Whittle, and Dr Peggy Brunache, lecturer in the history of Atlantic slavery at the University of Glasgow. The concept of ​‘memory’, which can be understood as personal, collective or cultural, will provide an interpretive frame for this discussion, to weave connections between the artist’s practice, anti-racist and pro-black advocacy, and Scotland’s historic connections to the Transatlantic slave trade.

Content note: this film and discussion will contain references to racism, chattel slavery, and police brutality.

SCREENING SCHEDULE
6pm – Welcome
6.10pm – Screening of ​‘Lagareh – The Last Born’
6.50 – Interval
7.10pm – Alberta Whittle and Dr Peggy Brunache in conversation
8pm – Ends

Location

Glasgow Film Theatre

glasgowfilm.org