The Story of a Three Day Pass 15

From the archive

This film was last shown on 25 October 2021

Unable to break into a segregated Hollywood, Melvin Van Peebles travelled to France, taught himself the language, and wrote a number of books, one of which, La permission, he would later adapt into this stylistically innovative feature debut, The Story of a Three Day Pass.

Turner, an African American soldier stationed in France, is granted a promotion and a three-day leave by his casually racist commanding officer. He heads to Paris where he begins a whirlwind romance with a white woman – but what happens to their love when his furlough is over?

Channelling the brash exuberance of the French New Wave, Van Peebles creates an exploration of the psychology of an interracial relationship as well as a commentary on France’s contradictory attitudes about race that is playful, sarcastic and insightful.

Caribbean Perspectives Exhibition 2021

Mon 25 Oct - Fri 29 Oct

Mezzanine Floor, The Workstation, Paternoster Row

A collaboration between BATaCC (Black Arts, Theatre and Cultural Collective) and SAACH (Sheffield Action for African-Caribbean Health).

The Caribbean Perspectives 2021 exhibition is a diverse blend of photographic images from local Caribbean photographers. The images have emerged from a project to encourage amateur or semi-professional photographers to exhibit their work for a wider audience. Their plan was to exhibit in October 2020, but instead, the images have been developed or refocused during lockdown. A number of photographers therefore present views of the natural world, as they experienced it during Covid restrictions. There is also a study of Black people in the British armed forces, and of Black entrepreneurs in Sheffield, as well as a colourful study of healthy foods.

The project has benefitted from funding from the J G Graves Charitable Trust.