Refuge England – Migration Stories

Films of Resistance: Experimental Community Cinema in Bethnal Green

Join Four Corners and Dr Hollie Price from Keele University in St Margaret’s House Chapel for the third in a series of screenings and conversations exploring the radical history of filmmaking on Roman Road.

In the 1970s and 80s, filmmakers cooperative Four Corners created experimental films whilst running a community cinema and film workshops from their premises – a former grocer’s shop on Roman Road.

These events are inspired by some of the issues addressed in Four Corners' early projects, including women's lives, allotment spaces, experiences of migration, and youth culture. They will explore these themes in dialogue with the present-day and reflect on how they continue to resonate with people living in Tower Hamlets and neighbouring boroughs today.

Refugee England - Migration Stories

We will be screening Purbo London (Ruhul Amin,1982), a short film depicting a young Bengali cloth worker in Spitalfields. Made by filmmaker Ruhul Amin with Four Corners, Purbo London intimately depicts the central character’s feelings about his identity through close attention to his everyday life and surroundings in East London.

In 1982, Four Corners ran a series of screenings called ‘The Promised Land: the experience of being an exile or immigrant’, held in its cinema on Roman Road. Inspired by these screenings, Purbo London will be shown with two recent films exploring migration and identity in East London: H is for Hostile Environment (Edwin Mingard and Keren Weitzberg, 2022) and The Cockney Sikh (Farihah Chowdhury, 2024).

Further information

2025 marks Four Corners' 50th anniversary. You can explore our early history at Four Corners Archive and find out more about our work today here.

This series of events is part of the ‘Four Corners Film Workshop: Independent Filmmaking and Exhibition in East London, 1975-90’ research project led by Dr Hollie Price at Keele University in partnership with Four Corners, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Host or Publisher Four Corners