2 July – 3 September



Connecting Thin Black Lines 1985 – 2025
Screening Programme

This major group exhibition and event programme curated by Lubaina Himid celebrates 40 years since The Thin Black Line, the groundbreaking group show of young Black and Asian women artists at the ICA in 1985.

Extending beyond the gallery space, a rich programme of film screenings, talks, music and live performances brings to life Himid’s original ambition for a multi-disciplinary Black arts festival across the ICA’s exhibition, cinema and live spaces.

Click here to explore the full exhibition and event programme.

Wednesday 2 July, 7pm
Pratibha Parmar: Memory Pictures, Flesh & Paper, Khush + Q&A
This evening brings together three films by Pratibha Parmar that explore South Asian queer diasporic life.



Wednesday 9 July, 7pm
Sutapa Biswas: Kali & Lumen + Q&A
A special double-bill screening of Sutapa Biswas’s films Lumen (2021) and Kali (1983 – 85) followed by a Q&A with the artist.



Wednesday 16 July, 7pm
Helen Cammock: There’s a Hole in the Sky Parts I & II + Performance
Helen Cammock’s two-part video work explores the entangled legacies of colonialism, migration, and appropriation. Accompanied by a live performance.



Wednesday 6 August, 7pm
Pratibha Parmar: Alice Walker – Beauty in Truth + Q&A
This richly layered portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker traces her journey from the segregated American South to international literary and activist acclaim.



Wednesday 13 August, 7pm
Helen Cammock: Changing Room, They Call It Idlewild + Q&A
This screening presents two deeply personal and politically resonant works by Helen Cammock: They Call It Idlewild (2020) and Changing Room (2014), followed by a conversation with curator Nydia A. Swaby.



Wednesday 20 August, 7pm
Amber Akaunu: Dear Othermother + Q&A
This newly commissioned film by Liverpool Biennial 2025, celebrates a deeply personal tale of friendship, single motherhood and alternative, matriarchal community networks in Liverpool 8, one of the oldest Black communities in the UK.



Saturday 30 August
Helen Cammock: Che si può fare
This deeply moving and formally inventive work explores lament as both an emotional expression and a political gesture. Interweaving women’s stories of loss and resilience with Baroque music by female composers, the film reflects on how grief, resistance, and memory travel across histories and geographies.
The work is 1 hr 40 mins, and will screen at the following times: 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm



Wednesday 3 September, 7pm
Pratibha Parmar: Emergence, Sari Red, A Place of Rage + Panel Discussion
This evening brings together three landmark films directed by Pratibha Parmar that chart a bold feminist politics of resistance, kinship, and solidarity across transnational feminist imaginaries. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and the launch of a new publication on Parmar’s work.