Over the past weekend I saw the latest A24 film The Drama where crime, consequences and morality are explored through a dark comedic lens.
If you, like me, loved that film then you are in for a treat because it just so happens that Manchester Metropolitan University has an annual Crime and Justice Film Festival running accross May and June.
Join us to enjoy a free programme of 8 films that explore complex judicial and moral problems with experts in criminology and the criminal justice world.
Highlights include 2 classics M (PG) and Z (15) from the vaults of film history, reflecting on different countries and their very different interpretations of the letter (!) of the law.
From the North West Film Archives we take a look back at 100 years of young people on screen with Scouting, Skating, Hanging Around: Youth on Film
a perfect double bill with Bill Forsyth classic That Sinking Feeling (15) on Saturday 16th May
The festival concludes with Limbo (15) featuring Amir El-Masry who you may recognise from BBC shows The Night Manager and Industry.
Fun fact – El-Masry was himself a criminology student before embarking on his career as an actor.
Check out the full programme on the AHEAD website and book now to guarantee a seat for these cinematic treats.
@nwfilmarchive
/2026/02/27/the-manchester-international-crime-and-justice-film-festival-2026/
#TalkAboutHumanities
#TalkAboutSocialSciences
BODY/LAND
Film & Exhibition by Siân A. Williams
24 April – 7 May (closed weekends)
Dark Room, The Holden Gallery
Manchester School of Art, M15 6BR
SODA-based PhD filmmaking researcher Siân A. Williams presents BODY/LAND, a feature-length documentary accompanied by site-specific sculptural works, exhibited in the Dark Room at The Holden Gallery (All Saints Campus, Grosvenor West Building).
Developed through an NWCDTP-supported research project, BODY/LAND explores creative documentary methods for examining queer and trans absence and presence within regional audiovisual archives. The film remixes footage from the North West Film Archive, reorienting it beyond formal archive categories, reshaping how queer histories are encountered.
This practice-based research brings together co-created interviews and performances developed in collaboration with five artists and musicians featured in the film: Janina Sabaliauskaite, Avadrian Night, E.M. Parry, Ro Robertson, and Snuggle Ninja. These interventions cultivate care-led narratives that reflect how queer and trans creatives understand themselves and their environments, moving beyond well-worn frameworks of acceptance, coming out, and medicalisation towards a more expansive language of BODY(s) and LAND(s).
The feature-length documentary runs on a 90-minute loop at the following times:
Monday to Friday
12:30 – 14:00
14:00 – 15:30
15:30 – 17:00
Additional evening screenings (Monday to Thursday)
17:30 – 19:00
@sianyriot
Bunker Talk #165 with Stephen Sutcliffe is taking place next week at the Salutation Pub, tickets are available via our bio!
UK based artist Stephen Sutcliffe (1968, Harrogate) creates and exhibits films, collages, wall paintings and photographs from an extensive archive of material he has been amassing since childhood, together with items found in institutional collections.
Often reflecting on aspects of British culture and identity and having literary origins, the results are melancholic, poetic and satirical amalgams which subtly tease out and critique ideas of class-consciousness and cultural authority.
Employing an extensive editing process Sutcliffe’s works subvert predominant narratives, generating alternative readings through the juxtaposition and layering of both found and self-generated material.
Really happy to have hosted ballad singer @jenniferballadss at our recent Hey! Festival in Manchester on St George’s Day. Songs of revolution and subversion. Enjoy! Thanks to @crossstchapel for hosting , @aheadmmu for funding and @jamhouseproductions for the film. #community #activism #songs #softpower #manchester @thefeteofbritain
Here’s our amazing @anouchkagrose two weeks ago at our Hey! Festival, Manchester offering her unique Argue With A Woman. People lined up to talk, discuss, argue with her. Just one of the many good things we do at Hey! Thanks to @crossstchapel for hosting and @aheadmmu for co funding and @english_manmetuni for support too. More of this soon. Hey! Is part of @thefeteofbritain #community #liveliterature #activism #difficultconversations #love
ANOTHER SCREENING ALERT...
Check out another one of our screenings Embrace of the serpent (Guerra, 2015). This film tells the story of the relationship between Karamakate and two scientists who work together over the course of forty years.
For more information, scan the QR code on the poster!
#beyondbabel #mmu #soda #manchester #manchestermet #film #screenstudies #filmstudies
🎥 Crime Documentaries: In Conversation
Louise Malkinson with Rebecca Askew
📅 Tue 12 May | ⏰ 5.30–7.00pm
Get insider knowledge of frontline documentary filmmaking.
Louise Malkinson discusses the challenges of filming policing and criminal justice with unprecedented access — ethical dilemmas, trust, and storytelling where the stakes are real.
Louise is in conversation with Manchester Met’s very own Dr. Rebecca Askew, Director of Drugs Policy and Social Change (DPSC) Research Group. Great for networking and posting on LinkedIn, students!
📌 Illustrated with clips from Malkinson’s The Detectives: Murder on the Streets series.
We are pairing our programming with other viewing suggestions:
🔍 Recommended watch: Cover‑Up (2025), Laura Poitras’ recent political documentary tracing investigative journalism and state power — a sharp companion piece on truth, access and accountability.
#CrimeDocumentary #TrueCrime #DocumentaryFilm #CriminalJustice #QandA
Here are some pics from last nights Bunker Talk with Benedict L Phillips on An A-Z of neurodivergent ideas, hosted by Anne-Marie Atkinson! Thank you to both for giving such an engaging and interesting talk 🗣️
Thank you to everyone who came to this talk, a video recording will be available on the Bunker Talk archive at the end of the month!
Meet Benedict Phillips @benedictlphillips our guest speaker for next week’s Bunker Talk, An A-Z of neurodivergent ideas. Please join us for an artist talk and Q&A hosted by @annemarie_atkinson (@mcrschart ).
For tickets and more information, visit the link in our bio!!
See you there?
PRG member @rach_rim_piek is developing a new work, In the Midst of Precarity, in collaboration with independent dance artist @kittyosken . In the Midst of Precarity has been commissioned by the ACE funded Back to the Bone Festival. It will use scored dance improvisation as a methodology to explore our lived experiences as women in the midst of precarity. The outcome will be a performance that offers a reflection on intergenerational female friendship, fuelled by 17 years of collaborating and exploring.
Back to the Bone festival will take place on Saturday 6th June at The Ballroom, Fenton Town Hall, Stoke-on-Trent. Back to the Bone is a multi-disciplinary art festival (Dance , Theatre , Singing , Spoken words ) that celebrates the power, complexity, and beauty of womanhood in all its forms. The festival aims to confront silences, break taboos, and amplify the voices that are often overlooked or silenced. This is a space for healing and honesty where the audience can engage with different art forms, exploring themes of truth, vulnerability, and the raw, radical beauty of being a woman or identifying with womanhood. All the art companies involved in the festival have been commissioned to create a piece around the Festival theme . More information can be found on our website (link in bio). Tickets available here: /back-to-the-bone-festival/back-to-the-bone-festival-2026/e-emrvaj.
Bunker Talk #164, An A-Z of neurodivergent ideas, with artist Benedict L Phillips is taking place on 5 May at The Salutation Pub !!
Benedict Phillips is an established artist, curator, and consultant. His practice is eclectic, encompassing a broad range of methodologies, generating work as diverse as public art, performance, sculpture, photography, and media art. He is particularly concerned with the ongoing interrelationship and shifting hierarchy between photography, sculpture and performance within his practice, and the aesthetics of each approach. Exploiting historical production processes as well as more recent digitally driven approaches informs the making of much of his work.
Book your place using the link in our bio 🔗 we look forward to seeing you there 🫶
