Over the past weekend, we took over the Whitechapel Gallery for our annual showcase of the Film London Jarman Award selected artists. Featuring screening of all six artists' work and conversations with the artists.

The first day began with Melanie Manchot in conversation with writer Isobel Harbison, explore themes of gendered labour and night time in Liquid Skin (2023). Melanie also touched upon the support she's received from Film London, saying "FLAMIN have an amazing mentoring programme for people who want to transition from moving artwork to something more long-form."

Maeve Brennan followed with a discussion with writer and curator Erika Balsom around her work An Excavation. The film documents an investigation into the unknown origins of three crates of ancient vases, seized from a disgraced antiquities dealer implicated in the trafficking of looted archaeological treasures. Maeve touched upon the similarities and differences between her work and the recent film La Chimera.

The day was rounded off with Sin Wai Kin in conversation with curator, writer and researcher Maggie Matić, talking through how their practice imagines new ways of thinking beyond binary categories.

The second day of presentations and screenings kicked off with a screening and presentation of Larry Achiampong's latest work. Achiampong, who was previously nominated for the Film London Jarman Award in 2018, presented A Pledge (2021)an intimate exploration of loneliness, generational trauma and family connection examined through motifs of digital culture, gaming and technology. Achiampong's post screening Q&A with close friend and collaborator Jayden Ali reflected on themes of fatherhood, brotherhood and a childhood in Tower Hamlets, just round the corner from the Whitechapel Gallery itself.

Following Achiampong was Maryam Takafory with a powerful archival presentation of films made in Iran after 1979. Takafory's work sheds light on the repression of cinema and art in post-Revolutionary Iran, and the disproportionate effect on Iranian women. Takafory's introduction underlined the ongoing systematic oppression of women in Iran, and how her moving image work continues the story of her film I Want To Tell You What I Can’t.

Finally, the weekend was rounded off with a presentation of selected film works by Rosalind Nashashibi chronicling quotidian life throughout Palestine. Films such as Electrical Gaza (2015), filmed during the 2014 War, portrays the strength and persistence of Gazans at a tense moment in their history.

Watch films from this year's Jarman Award nominated artists at the Whitechapel Gallery on November 30 and December 1.

Find out more here.