Tower Hamlets (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Art lovers are urged to attend this Saturday’s screening of innovative films at Tower Hamlets’ Nunnery Gallery, showcasing emerging visual arts talent.
The most recent installment of the gallery’s renowned “Visions in the Nunnery” exhibition, which takes place only every two years, is called “Visions in place.”
The “intimate screening” of “boundary-pushing films” on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. will showcase films from international filmmakers.
Karen Russo’s 2024 film Sinkholes, which depicts a bleak future in which water has become limited, is one of this year’s shorts. In a visually arresting examination of ecological collapse, Russo’s film, which was shot in the arid regions of Israel and Palestine, begins with the drying up of the Red Sea.
Dorothy Cheung’s 2025 short “as a bird that briefly perches” might be the afternoon’s high point. The London-based filmmaker compares human nature to greenhouse gardening, drawing on her Hong Kong upbringing.
One of the afternoon’s lesser-known movies, the 16-minute video explores “the implications of rooting, re-rooting and growing” in the “evolving dynamics between land and human” and offers audiences an opportunity to watch one of the emerging stars in London’s film industry.
Cheung told ELL:
“It is a 3-part essay film that reflects on personal queer diasporic experience with granite and botanical gardens. It concludes with a documentation on a young farmer from Hong Kong who grows Asian vegetables in suburban London. As she saves seeds after every crop, these seeds become more resilient to displacement and farther from their origins.”
She added:
“My practice is generally about the intersection of identities and the many forms memories (and forgetting) can take. I am particularly interested in hybrid forms of documentary and experimental moving image.”
Tessa Garland, one of the exhibitions curators, told ELL:
“[Cheung’s film] hasn’t yet had significant attention in the UK, although I’m sure her work will continue to attract increasing critical acclaim.”
Another intriguing submission is “Thundergod” (2024) by Umi Ishihara. Ishihara’s film, which explores themes of mythology, religion, and resiliency, is about an underground club where only people who have survived lightning strikes are allowed to play.
“Sister Sing a Song (there’s a shallow answer and then there’s the deeper answer)” by Lauren Heckler and Shanzay Subzwari combines the Welsh and Pakistani ancestry of the artist.
“Can histories be absorbed in ways that foster empathy and an understanding of nuance?”
is the question posed by the video, which shows a hybrid watch party between the two nations.
Onyeka Igwe, a Nigerian-British filmmaker and visual artist who shared the 2025 Film London Jarman Award, is curating the screening on Saturday. Her art, which focuses on “the prosaic and everyday aspects of black livingness,” has been displayed in galleries all over the world, including a solo show at Tate Britain that will run until May of next year.
Garland told ELL:
“This year, the exhibition is curated in dialogue with our lead artist Onyeka Igwe’s film ‘the names have been changed, including my own and truths have been altered’. We’ve built the wider exhibition around themes and ideas present in her work: memory, narrative, identity, and the archive.”
The show will open at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 6, and costs between £3 and £5.
Which short films and filmmakers will be featured at the screening?
No specific details on individual short flicks or filmmakers for the December 6, 2025,” Fancies in Place” webbing at Nunnery Gallery are available in current sources. The event features a curated selection of innovative films by arising visual artists from East London, tied to the ongoing exhibition( November 15 – December 21), exploring themes of place, history, migration, and community.
The autumn program (12:00 pm – 4:00 pm, free entry) showcases point- responsive workshop pressing original gift, harmonious with Nunnery Gallery’s focus on accessible visual trades programming. History analogous events have included Q&A s and panels to engage cult with generators.
Attendees are encouraged to check the gallery’s website(bowarts.org/nunnery-gallery) or contact Tower Hamlets trades for the rearmost program lineup, as details may modernize near to the date.