Alberta Whittle: The Axe Forgets, but the Tree Remembers - film screening + artist talk

On September 4, 2024 at 7 pm we invite you to the screening of Alberta Whittle's film The Axe Forgets, but the Tree Remembers as part of the exhibition Alberta Whittle: ...Moving Beyond the Time of Salt. After the screening, Alberta Whittle will talk about the film and discuss it with you.

The Axe Forgets, but the Tree Remembers is a polyphonic portrait of members of the Windrush generation and their descendants, based on material from the Hackney Archives. In the film, Whittle dissolves notions of time and space and combines different narratives, archival material and artworks through hurricanes, the sea and the history of seafaring. These references to water play a central symbolic and haunting role in Windrush Migration. The dramatic and unsettling backdrop also sets the tone for the conversation with Hackney resident Janice Knight, whose legal fight for justice for the police brutality her family experienced reflects the state of uncertainty and precarity still experienced by the black community today.

Alberta Whittle
The Axe Forgets, but the Tree Remembers, 2022
English with subtitles
51:30 min

Trigger warning: The film speaks openly about racism, violence and grief
Admission: 5 Euro

The film was part of the Hackney Windrush Public Program, 2022, curated by Create London in partnership with Hackney Council, supported by Freelands Foundation.