cecile emeke is an artist and filmmaker from london. her work explores time, epistemology and cultural production, through the prism of the black diasporic experience, often with particular emphasis on black british, caribbean and london culture, within liminal, interior and intimate spaces of a relational, physical, emotional and/or psychic nature. her work is preoccupied with subtly foregrounding modern and contemporary acts of ritual that emerge unconsciously within mundane and personal settings, thereby unfolding spheres of life that hide in plain sight. her work has been exhibited and screened extensively, including presentations at the ica london, ica boston, the brooklyn museum, the museum of contemporary art chicago, and the national gallery of jamaica, amongst other institutions. she has spoken at oxford university, cambridge university, the institute of education, the university of edinburgh and the university of toronto, amongst other venues. she is currently developing several television, feature film, virtual reality and moving image projects, including her writer-directorial debut feature film, supported by bbc films.
presentations
2020 no direct flight film festival, nairobi
2020 civic square, visions for the future
2019 british film institute, no direct flight
2019 brooklyn academy of music, we can’t even
2019 brooklyn academy of music, on resentment
2019 project row houses, black radical imagination: fugitive trajectories
2019 miller Institute for contemporary art pittsburgh, black radical imagination: fugitive trajectories
2018 ann arbour film festival, black radical imagination: fugitive trajectorie
2018 institute of contemporary arts boston, black radical imagination: fugitive trajectories
2018 british film institute, testaments
2018 smithsonian african american film festival, black radical imagination: fugitive trajectories
2018 museum of contemporary art chicago, black radical imagination: fugitive trajectories
2018 institute of contemporary arts london, lssf: new shorts
2017 bozar brussels, afropolitan festival
2017 british film institute, unbound
2017 agora rollberg berlin, berlin feminist film week
2017 institute of contemporary arts london, new transmissions, new pathways
2017 the london short film festival
2016 keynote, university of toronto scarborough
2016 keynote, woc europe conference, university of edinburgh
2016 the national gallery of jamaica, digital
2016 black star film festival
2015 ucl, institute of education, decolonising film
2015 southbank centre london, strive festival
2015 southbank centre london, africa utopia
2015 southbank centre london, changing britain
2015 oxford university, the untold stories of black britain
2015 cambridge university, in conversation with lola michelle
2015 tribeca film festival
2015 bfi london film festival
2015 trinidad & tobago film festival
2015 black her stories film festival vienna
2015 the barbican, panic
2015 da bounce urban film festival amsterdam
2015 brooklyn museum, carribeing
2015 urban world film festival
2015 the american black film festival
2014 peckham film festival
2014 no gloss film festival
jury
2020 africa in motion film festival, jury
2018 open city documentary festival, jury
2018 film africa, jury
publications
2020 september issue, harpers bazaar us
2016 january issue, sight & sound magazine
2015 spring/summer issue, dazed
honours
2015 broadcast hotshot
2015 screennation vanguard award