Cinema // Sinema: Jarman Film London 2023 screening

10 November 2023

Ayo Akingbade - Andrew Black - Julianknxx -
Sophie Koko Gate - Karen Russo - Rehana Zaman

Jarman Award 2023
Jarman Award 2023

10/11/2023, 11:00-17:00
All day screening in the g39 Cinema // Trwy'r dydd mewn sinema g39


Featuring work from the six artists shortlisted for the 2023 Film London Jarman Award, the tour will offer audiences the chance to explore an extraordinary range of boundary pushing work.

While Andrew Black’s films challenge conventional narratives around the British countryside, Sophie Koko Gate’s darkly humorous animations set stories of longing and frustrated desire in dreamlike worlds. Julianknxx highlights the interrelated crises of inequality and air pollution, while Ayo Akingbade crafts a love story to London in a narrative film that follows a day in the life of a Hackney teenager. Rehana Zaman examines the compromised promises of cryptocurrency and the possibilities of alternative modes of exchange, while Karen Russo presents a cinematic exploration of the fantastical carved home of visionary architect Karl Junker.

From surreal animated worlds to filmic explorations of landscape and community, the 2023 Film London Jarman Award showcases the urgency, creativity, and humour of exciting new approaches to the moving image.

Whether located in a Hackney council block or a Guinness factory in Nigeria, Ayo Akingbade’s intimate and playful films reflect the influence of place on a personal sense of identity, while Andrew Black works in close collaboration with local communities to uncover complex political histories hidden beneath the surface of the British countryside.

Experimental animator Sophie Koko Gate transforms familiar angsts and desires into dreamlike stories and psychedelic worlds, from a curious woman who has developed a taste for slugs as lovers to a fantastical holiday-romance film made during lockdown. Karen Russo’s work focuses on marginalised characters, obscure buildings and forgotten moments from the 20th century, allowing us to reflect on the political, religious and cultural power structures that shape our understanding of history.


Ayo Akingbade, Jitterbug (2022), 24’
Andrew Black, Revenge Fantasy (2019), 13’
Julianknxx, Black Corporeal (Breathing By Numbers) (2022), 16’
Sophie Koko Gate, Hotel Kalura (2021), 5’
Karen Russo, Junkerhaus (2021), 7’
Rehana Zaman, Alternative Economies (2021), 28’


Empathy and community are at the heart of Rehana Zaman’s practice. Developed in collaboration with a group of women affected by the UK Government’s Hostile Environment Policy and prison system, Zaman’s recent work captures the perseverance of love and solidarity through experiences of trauma.

In his practice, Julianknxx explores the multiple realities of black lives, from a poetic documentary that highlights the disproportionate impact of air pollution on working class citizens in London to a cinematic return to the artist’s birthplace of Freetown in Sierra Leone.


The artists shortlisted for the 2023 Film London Jarman Award create work characterised by a sense of resilience and joy, creating new visual languages and fresh perspectives on often tough and complex subjects.

  • Sophie Koko Gate, Hotel Kalura, 2021
  • Rehana Zaman, Alternative Economies, 2021
  • Julianknxx, Black Corporeal [Breathing by Numbers], 2022
  • Karen Russo, Junkerhaus, 2021
  • Andrew Black, Revenge Fantasy, 2019
  • Ayo Akingbade, Jitterbug, 2022. Photo//ffoto: Mustafa Hussein
  • Jarman Award 2023

Programme