A Magical Substance Flows into Me / The Stuart Hall Project (M+2016)

A Magical Substance Flows into Me (2015)
68 min, English, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles, DCP, Palestine, German and UK

In the 1930s, German-Jewish ethnomusicologist Robert Lachmann hosted a radio programme titled Oriental Music. The director Jumana Manna traces the cultural orbit of Lachmann’s programme and explores the musical traditions of ethnic groups in and around Jerusalem, including that of her own family. During visits with local families, she records songs rich in Middle Eastern flavour, and uses the opportunity to parse the complex and disorderly historical background of her homeland.
Director: Jumana Manna

The Stuart Hall Project (2013)
103 min, English, DCP, UK

This documentary features a montage of video and audio recordings of the cultural theorist Stuart Hall. Beginning with his childhood in the 1950s, the film provides an account of Hall’s theories of post-colonialism and cultural identity. This is an examination of the fluidity of Hall’s ideas about culture and values, as well as his own identity.
Director: John Akomfrah