• Essex Girls (2023) by Yero Timi-Biu

A teenage girl navigates friendship groups, social awkwardness and boys in this sharp coming-of-age drama. Blonde hair, fake tan, white... The familiar stereotype of an Essex Girl doesn't exactly describe Bisola. Produced by Angela Moneke, Essex Girls was made with the support of BFI NETWORK, awarding National Lottery funding.

• Who we were; who we became (2024) by Darshan Gajjar

Who We Were, Who We Became is a love song foregrounding the memories, faith, and joy-making of the Windrush generation. It follows their final island moments and their journey to England.

• Mama Justice Hair of Beauty Salon (2023) by Dhivya Kate Chetty

In the empty salon, Sheffield hairdresser, Justine, takes time to wash and braid her daughter Moklaman’s hair. An intimate portrait visually and sonically exploring the affectionate interactions between a mother and child.

• Born on Sunday Silent (2023) by Eelyn Lee

After an encounter with Kai, the spirit of the Black child she is researching, 18-year-old student Abba-Yaa agrees to a bargain. On a promise to be shown something of Kai’s past, Abba-Yaa takes the trickster spirit out of the cemetery where she has been trapped for over 100 years. Kai guides Abba-Yaa back in time where she witnesses the horrors of the past, but when Abba-Yaa tries to get back to the present, Kai makes a split-second decision that alters the fate of both of them.

• Ojumo Ti Mo (2019) by Simisolaoluwa Akande

Three years after their father passed, a family of four women come together through a series of phone calls spanning over three months. Three years after their father passed, a documentary acts as the perfect stage for a family of four women to talk through their experiences of their loss. Somewhere between distance and time, phone calls provided each person the space to tell their own stories.

• Yero Timi-Biu is a British Nigerian writer-director for TV and film with projects for BBC, Channel 4, BFI, and Audible. Currently, Yero is one of three directors at the helm of Sir Lenny Henry's upcoming ITV drama, THREE LITTLE BIRDS. Yero has also been a staff writer on original shows for Sky One and Netflix (US). Her award-winning short films SIGNS and BENEATH THE SURFACE have played at international festivals such as Encounters, Aesthetica, and Animation Block Party. Yero's film 0.5% was commissioned by Screen South/BBC Arts and was released on iPlayer in 2022. Continuing her BBC Arts relationship, Yero directed the first one-hour episode of THE READ released in April 2022, a narrative takes on Sam Selvon’s novel ‘The Lonely Londoners’ starring I MAY DESTROY YOU’s Danielle Vitalis. Yero was commissioned by the Booker Prize to direct two films for the 2021 shortlisted authors. Yero has recently directed the coming-of-age film ESSEX GIRLS for BFI, and she is working on her first feature film debut. Yero was 2nd unit director for the BBC One/Amazon psychological thriller CHLOE (2022). Yero also has original shows in development with various indies, streamers, and broadcasters. Yero was one of Edinburgh TV Festival's prestigious 'Ones to Watch' for 2020/2021.

• Dhivya Kate Chetty is a Liverpool-based writer and filmmaker whose interests and screen work span documentary and fiction. Her credits include Glasgow, Love & Apartheid (BBC Scotland/Screen Scotland); When Tina Turner Came to Britain (Wise Owl Films, BBC2); The Barber (Moquette Films, BFI Network, Film4) Bee Whisperer (Netflix Doc Talent Fund) and The Brontës by Anita Rani: Sisters of Disruption (Wise Owl Films, Sky Arts). Dhivya was selected for the prestigious BAFTA Elevate 25 / 26 cohort and is currently in early development with a diverse slate of documentary and fiction projects.

• Simisolaoluwa Akande is a multi-award-winning experimental filmmaker whose practice explores speculative non-fiction as a means of exploring the tension between national and personal archives. Her work engages archival materials to examine the politics of queer African memory and representation, centring African queer epistemologies and challenging the limits of institutional archives through alternative modes of remembering and knowledge production. Her 2025 narrative debut, Baby, premiered at the London Film Festival and Won Best Cinematography at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Her 2022 documentary, The Archive: Queer Nigerians, achieved international acclaim, screening at IDFA and winning Best Short at LFF. Alongside filmmaking, she contributed the essay, ‘Disordered/speculative memory’, published within the anthology ‘Archiving Resistance and Freedom in African Cinema’.

• Darshan Gajjar is an abstract and poetic Visual Director of Photography / Cinematographer & Filmmaker. Based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

  He was a formerly a film and Media Production student graduating from Sheffield Hallam University with First Degree Honours and is experienced with over five years of filmmaking and seven years of video editing. His visual work spans music videos, film and commercial productions.

The Creative Producers are a collective of care experienced young people aged 18-25 who will meet on a weekly basis to develop their creativity, professional skills and learn about the creative industries in Sheffield.

T A P E is a UK-based film company working across exhibition and distribution to platform the works of global majority filmmakers. Cross-curatorial, but firmly rooted in film, T A P E creates ties with art, music, talks and more, to bring exciting and subversive filmmaking to new and established audiences. With a focus on representation, identity and heritage, we champion the forgotten could-be cult films of the festival circuit.

Accessibility information for Showroom Cinema can be found on our website and on AccessAble. If you have any questions regarding accessibility for the festival, please feel free to contact us at communties@srws.org.uk

Information on Accessibility at Showroom Cinema