Mockingbird Cinema marks 40 years of Handsworth Songs in Digbeth

Some films become part of a city's story, and Handsworth Songs is one of them. Forty years after it was first screened at the Birmingham Film and Television Festival, Digbeth's Mockingbird Cinema is marking the anniversary with a screening and Q&A panel on Thursday 22 October 2026.

Directed by John Akomfrah and produced by Lina Gopaul, Handsworth Songs was the debut feature of the Black Audio Film Collective. Filmed during the 1985 unrest in Handsworth and London, it weaves together newsreel, still photographs and a layered soundscape to explore the hopes and struggles of people who came to Britain from the Caribbean and South Asia after the Second World War. The film won seven prizes internationally, including the John Grierson Award for Best Documentary.

The anniversary has a further Birmingham chapter. According to the cinema, from October 2026 the film will be on view at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, now part of the city's collections.

It is the kind of event that suits Mockingbird perfectly. The independent cinema in Digbeth is run by The Digbeth Cinema, a registered Community Interest Company whose charter commits it to helping develop up-and-coming filmmakers, producers and directors, hosting charity events and providing screenings for local schools.

Its programme is gloriously varied. Alongside new releases, recent listings have included the anime favourite Paprika and The Lost Children of Tuam, while special events and marathons bring film fans together.

Mockingbird has two screens, of roughly 90 and 30 seats, which can be hired for private screenings, premieres, film clubs and Q&As. Its bar and social space, The Nest, serves drinks and cocktails before and after films, and can be booked as a venue on its own.

Regular cinemagoers can join a membership scheme with free tickets included, and supporters can also make a donation to the cinema's community work.

Listings for Forty Years of Handsworth Songs and the rest of the programme are on the Mockingbird Cinema website.