Free films to watch at the British Museum

For the next two months every Thursday the British Museum is showing a different documentary film from around the world in its BP Lecture Theatre. The series is called PocketVisions Conversations in film and is free to attend. After the showing of each film the filmmakers will be on hand to answer questions about their project.

The remaining schedule is as follows,

18 January - 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep A Film by director Ben Hopkins about the Pamir Kirghiz tribe from Central Aisa who have been exiled in Turkey for almost thirty years. Prize winner at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival.

25 January - Collective Dreams A look at the past, present and future lives of people who live on a collective farm in Lithuania by director Sepp R. Brudermann. Best documentary winner at the British National Students Film Festival.

1 February - Tumaini Letu/Our Hope and The Bad Sickness in Papua New Guinea The first film is about kids orphaned by AIDS in Kenya and about three woman who are left to look after them. Directed by Natalie Halpern and winner of Best Short Documentary at the 2006 New York AIDS Film Festival. The Bad Sickness in Papua New Guinea looks at how HIV has effected PNG and is directed by Wendy Zakiewicz.

8 February - The Black Hole The story of a guy who spent 20 years working at Los Alamos on nuclear weapons but is now trying to get the US government to stop nuclear research. Directed by David Napier.

15 February - Whoosh - Hip LIfe and the Ga Tradition and Dancing with Kunde Whoosh takes a look at the changing youth culture in Ghana in a film by Christopher de Selincourt. The second film deals with more traditional Ghanaian rituals and culture in the first film from director Scott Kiehl.

22 February - Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes and House of Love Diamonds shows the less glamourous side of the gem, the terrible conditions and low pay workers in Sierra Leone have to endure to and how the stones are exported making a tiny few very rich. Directed by Peter Conteh. House of Love shows the lives of prostitutes working in Walvis Bay, Namibia and how they’re dependent on visits to port by foreign ships. Cecil Moller is the director.

1 March - The Zo-e: Nomads of the Amazon Director Matt Currington has made a film that looks at one of the last hunter-gatherer in South America, the Zo-e of the Amazon.

8 March - At the Epicentre The story of the village of Lampuuk in Banda Aceh which was wiped out by the Tsunami, killing 6,000 of its 7,000 inhabitants. Ruhi Hamid directs.

15 March - The Rock Star and the Mullahs Following Salman Ahmed, lead singer of Pakistan’s leading rock band who goes to Peshawar to challenge local mullahs who have banned all music. Another Ruhi Hamid film.

All these films are free to watch and no pre booking is required. The show starts at 4pm each day.