Most widely known for his directing debut Handsworth Songs (1986) -- one of a group of films produced by the Black Audio Film Collective -- John Akomfrah's experimental film and television work takes as its focus a continuing examination of identity: specifically Black British identity, but also the immigrant experience more generally. His latest work, at the BFI Gallery, uses the framework of the Greek myth of Mnemosyne, mother of the nine Muses and the personification of memory, as a catalyst for exploration of the fragility and fluidity of reminiscence and recollection. Combining a wide range of archival footage, particularly from '60s Birmingham, together with dreamlike contemporary images of that now-deserted industrial landscape, and recurring images of a lone unidentified figure in a vast snowy terrain, this 45-minute film essay explores perceptions of belonging and alienation, and the shifting boundaries of expectation and reality. Divided into nine chapters -- for each of the Muses -- the images are overlaid with short passages including Beckett, Milton, Shakespeare and Homer's Iliad, all themed around journeys and searches, and linked together with music including blues, lieder, classical and jazz. A meditative and thought provoking work.

NB: On 14/07 (6:10pm) John Akomfrah will discuss Mnemosyne together with his earlier works. Mnemosyne screens at the BFI Gallery till 30/08.