SNAPSHOT Shorts Programme

SNAPSHOT is a season of films that turns the spotlight to Black girls who are coming of age on their own terms. 

Mixing contemporary and archive films, TAPE Presents: SNAPSHOT Shorts, an incredible rollercoaster of teenage angst, mother and daughter relationships, and the sweet liberation of finding your tribe. 

Made possible with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery in order to bring this project to more audiences across the UK.  

Film programme: 

Essex Girls (Dir Yero Timi-Biu/GB 2023/15 mins) 

Flipping the ‘Essex Girl’ trope, this coming-of-age film explores Black British girlhood and magical female friendships in 2009 Essex.  

Picking Tribes (Dir S. Pearl Sharp/US 1984/7 mins) 

In a heartfelt, and often hilarious, attempt to be more than “ordinary,” a girl growing up in the 1940s tries to choose between her African-American and Native-American heritages.  

Home Away from Home (Dir Maureen Blackwood/GB 1993/11 mins) 

To ease her homesickness, Miriam recreates an aspect of home in her suburban British garden. Cultural memory exerts a healing power, combatting the rift between Miriam and her Nigerian-British children.  

Muna (Dir Warda Mohamed/GB 2023/19 mins) 

A film about teenage dreams, dislocated grief and unexpected connection, following a British-Somali teen navigating a confusing mourning period for a family member she never met. 

Flight of the Swan (Dir Ngozi Onwurah/GB 1992/11 mins) 

A young girl leaves her Nigerian village to attend a ballet school in England. Fascinated by Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, she dreams of performing as lead ballerina Princess Odette, but the girls in her close-minded ballet school mock her ideas of a “black swan.” 

(Image – Essex Girls)