Attacks on civilians. Global anti-rights movements. Anti-democratic forces. Populism. Many believe that we are witnessing increasingly authoritarian rollbacks to democracy that are intimately connected to a global backlash on rights.

The aim of the London Migration Film Festival is to challenge the narrow rhetoric on migration that often sees migration, and people on the move, framed in reductive and dehumanising terms.

The Empress takes you from the gangways of Tilbury docks to the grandeur of Queen Victoria’s Palace, unveiling the long culture of British Asian history.

A selection of films from Africa, Asia and Latin America, or dealing with migration issues, from this year’s BFI London Film Festival (4-15 October).

“If you not give elephant proper burial he’ll haunt you forever.” 

Railway, dock and factory worker, military conscript, labour organiser in Senegal, Marseille and Paris, novelist and, of course, filmmaker – Ousmane Sembène was larger than life.

Shubbak Festival returns to London and the UK with an invitation “to pause and take a breath”.

Oliver Twist is the writer and performer of Jali at the Soho Theatre — but he doesn’t want to reveal too much about the production.

When the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp was ignored and condemned by authorities, ordinary people stepped in to support the stranded refugees. This is the story of the volunteers and  those they tried to help. 

A season of films by Arab women directors tell everyday stories, away from sensationalist portrayals too often offered by depictions of the Arab world.

Lenny Henry stars in his playwriting debut exploring a life impacted by the Windrush scandal.

A new darkly comic drama explores immigration and family secrets inspired by the events that followed the death of Chinese Canadian playwright Joanne Lau’s mother.

Nine masterpieces arising from postcolonial and contemporary Francophone West Africa.

The 27th edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival offers a line-up of 10 award-winning, international documentary films.

Visitors to the Natural History Museum will soon be able to engage with an emotive, life-like digital recreation of a northern white rhinoceros. 

One Who Wants To Cross is a dramatic meditation on migrants, wherever their place of origin…

The extraordinary story of a man who changed the course of modern history - his sacrifices as a husband and father, and the global movement that inspired him and his comrades to keep fighting.

The Hostile Environment, Brexit xenophobia, the small boat “invasion”. Does Laura Stahnke, co-director of Migration Collective, think public perception of migrants and migration has changed? Yes - for the better.

London Palestine Film Festival offers new releases, art house cinema, and old gems, along with presentations and discussions.

London’s biggest festival of African cinema, FilmAfrica, opens in October, the first edition since the end of Covid restrictions.