watching 



Yearning as Method: Notes on programming Latifah and Himli’s Nomadic Uncle (2023)




I watch films and attend to the conditions that allow them to appear and circulate, how, where, and to whom.

In recent years, attending to the how of showing films — as Ruth Wilson Gilmore would have it “Why this? Why this, here? Why this, here, now?” — has preoccupied me more than researching what films should or could be shown. This has meant films and programmes have rarely been assembled at all.

I want this space of absence to be known as a space of desire.  

You can read and watch more about my thoughts on this here and here. 



Previously I was a film programmer for 10 years in festivals and cinema exhibition and programmed independent film events through a screening series before that. 

In 2021 I was Head of Programming at Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival (BFMAF) and was the Co-Chair of LUX between 2017-2022 between 2021-2025. I was the Chair of the Feature Film Programming Committee at Blackstar Film Festival in Philadelphia, and between 2023-2025 I was Programmer in Residence at the Flaherty Seminar where I developed an unrealisable seminar entitled Yearning which has been erased from view. 

Other collaborations are United Screens and A Circle Of Protection, a film collective with Samia Labidi, Abhishek Nilamber and Viknesh Kobinathan committed to responsive spaces of gathering and offering rooted in south to south connections and solidarities.




Selected Related Works
The Limits of SharingBy Simran Hans
Read
Best Girl Grip PodcastInterview with Nicole Taylor
Listen
Reflections 5Tara Judah
Read
Reflections 6:
Tara Judah
Read
Notes from the FieldConversation with Matt Turner on Sentient. Art. Film
Read
When Hope Is Weary:Jemma Desai Questions What We Choose to Ignore
International Documentary Association
Read / PDF



Screening of Blood Ah Goh Run (1981) dir Menelik Shabazz as part of a programme for London Short Film Festival called Free White and 21 (2017)




Conversations
How we Gather with United Screens
IDA Watch
Cinematic Interventions to Freeing Palestine & The Global South Symposium

No Evil Eye Cinema Watch
The Truth about Film Festival
Distribution Advocates Listen
Creating spaces, sharing spaces
Berlinale Forum Expanded
Watch
Deconstructing Festivals: How much do we want what we say that we want?
Open City Documentary Film Festival
Read
In conversation with Rehana Zaman
BFMAF
Listen
In conversation with Jordan Lord
BFMAF
Listen
In conversation with Suneil Sanzgiri
BFMAF Listen
About Girlfriends: in conversation with Claudia Weill
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Read


Keynotes & Lectures
IDA KeynoteA film worker’s search for integrity Watch / Read
Yearning for new ways to make and circulate:
towards an infrastructure of being longing
Abandon Normal Devices Keynote Listen
Yearning as Method:
Notes on Programming Latifah and Himli’s Nomadic Uncle
Independent Cinema Office
Watch / Read



Artist publication designed by Claire Huss on the occasion of I am Dora part 2 which explored projections of female distress and public disclosure of  mental health crisis. The publication assembles requests for health records which have been destroyed, altered text by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes and personal memories in new forms.




Selected Programmes

What is to be UndoneA symposium co-programmed with Ethan Philbrick
Brooklyn Academy of Music June 2025
Programme
Yearning
Flaherty Programmer-in-Residence & Seminar Programmer
The Flaherty 2023-25  (Unrealised, Uncredited)
Announcement
Announcement
BFMAF 2021 Notes (on programming)
Guiding Thoughts
Online Exhibition
Public Intimacies: CorrespondencesA Programme of Films by Alia Syed
London Short Film Festival 2020
PDF
Domestic Estrangement
Raven Row
Listen
The seven provocations Little White Lies
A London panel event looked to ask questions about how best to achieve gender equality in the film industry.
Read
Two films by Josephine Decker
UK Tour website
Read
Adventures with UK audiences: taking two films by Josephine Decker on tour
by Simran Hans
Read
I am Dora Between 2012-2015 I curated a screening series and publication that explored identification with female characters through the frame of psychoanalysis. Each screening began with a performance introduction and was accompanied with a printed publication which explored my identification with characters in the films which was designed with Claire Huss.

Rarely has promotional publication been so meticulously thought out
Its Nice That Read
On beginning I am Dora
Institute of Contemporary Arts Read
Who, What Why Jemma Desai on I Am Dora AnOther Magazine
Read
On-Screen Activism at the London Short Film Festival
AnOther Magazine Read

7 female friendships on film British Film Institute BFI
Read