Black History Month 2023

To celebrate Black History Month, Showroom Cinema has programmed a wide-ranging season of films championing the diversity of Black voices in cinema. We have worked in partnership with several curators and organisations to bring thought-provoking documentaries, must-see classics and exciting previews to Sheffield.

Launching on Sunday 1 October, 1968 political thriller Uptight will screen with support from Cinema Rediscovered. The film captures the fury following Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, providing a provocative start to an exceptional month of cinema.

Another Cinema Rediscovered selection on Friday 8 October brings a gorgeous 4K restoration of the 1974 film Claudine, a family drama starring Diahann Carroll as a Black working-class mother struggling to make ends meet.

We present another side of Black cinema in the 1970s through the ‘Black Again! Fifty Years of Blaxploitation’ tour. The Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds has worked in partnership with film distributor Park Circus to present a selection of films, co-curated with writer Josiah Howard and Women of the Lens Film Festival. Showroom will screen the films Coffy, Cleopatra Jones (on 35mm), Black Caesar, and just in time for Halloween – Blacula.

Jumping back to the present day, we are delighted to be an official Venue Partner of the 67th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express. We will be screening Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama and Omen from rapper-turned-directorBaloji, the latter of which won the Un Certain Regard New Vision Award at Cannes. The new documentary from I Am Not Your Negro director Raoul Peck, Silver Dollar Road, opens Friday 13 October.

Another documentary, Cassius X: Becoming Ali, traces the early boxing career of Muhammed Ali as he fought his way to become the World Heavyweight Champion. Deepen your knowledge of Ali when writer Stuart Cosgrove joins us for a Q&A and take part in VR experience LockerRoom: Rumble in The Jungle in partnership with StoryFutures.

All ages can enjoy a Family Time screening of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, and the new season of Film Studies launches with Anti-Black Nightmares, exploring race in horror, curated by Dr. Maisha Wester (The University of Sheffield) in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University. Alongside a series of lectures, screenings include White Zombie, Candyman, The Night of the Living Dead and Get Out.

The season will close in November with Horace Ové’s Pressure, Britain's first Black feature film. Restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, this re-release will allow this crucial film to be (re)discovered on the big screen.

Tickets on sale now: Black History Month 2023.