The Culturist Film Club at Jameel Arts Centre

The Culturist Film Club returns to Jameel Arts Centre this summer for a second Summer Cinema programme collaboration. If you missed last year’s edition, you can read about it here.

I’m happy to be invited back and for this edition I’ve put together a programme of five feature films (last year we only showed short films). Each film will be introduced by me and I invited guest speakers to join me for post screening discussions. There will be snacks and drinks too.

The screenings will take place on alternate Saturdays between June 20 and August 15 starting at 7.30pm.

Free to attend, but pre-registration is required.

The following is the schedule and line up with links to read more information and to register.

June 20

MEMORIES OF PRINCESS MUMBI
Damien Hauser, 2025, 82 min

In 2093, filmmaker Kuve travels to Umata to document the aftermath of a war that revived ancient kingdoms. There, he meets Mumbi, who challenges him to make his film without AI. As Kuve searches for his own voice, he begins to understand that even in a broken world, beauty can be found in small human moments we often overlook. A thrilling work of speculative cinema that draws deeply on past cinematic tradition, Memories of Princess Mumbi asks what it means to bear witness — and what is at stake when we surrender that act to machines.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with artist and filmmaker Amirah Tajdin.

Read more and register here.

July 4

JOHN LILLY AND THE EARTH COINCIDENCE CONTROL OFFICE
Michael Almereyda, Courtney Stephens, 2025, 89 min

John Cunningham Lilly M.D. (1915-2001) sustained an extraordinary career through uniquely adventurous scientific research. His experimental projects were staged against the shifting backdrops of 1950s Cold War military science, the drug-infused counterculture of the 60s, and the environmental vanguard of the 70s.

Narrated by Chloë Sevigny, John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office tells the story of Lilly’s quest, as one historian put it, to “get his hands on the steering wheel of consciousness” — a project that relied increasingly on psychedelics, leaving conventional science behind. Lilly invented the isolation tank and was a primary explorer in the study of dolphin communication, founding his own lab in Miami and St. Thomas, pairing a young female researcher with a young male dolphin in a partially-flooded house. In addition to this experiment’s circulation in pop culture, Lilly served as the inspiration for two Hollywood movies, The Day of the Dolphin and Altered States. The film reflects the scope of Lilly’s interests, the evolution of his public persona, and his interactions with equally exceptional contemporaries, including filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with playwright, screenwriter, director, actor and producer Rebecca Crookshank.

Read more and register here.

July 18

AFTERLIVES
Kevin B. Lee, 2025, 88 min

Afterlives is a desktop documentary that critically engages with the historical and digital traces of extremist propaganda, questioning how images of violence circulate, mutate, and persist.

The film moves between virtual investigations and real-world encounters with artists, activists, and researchers who seek to resist the toxic effects of such media.

At its core is the figure of Medusa—a victim of violence whose gaze turned viewers to stone—invoked as a symbol of both the dangers and transformative potential of looking.

From museum archives to AI-generated reconstructions, the film explores how power structures, spanning from the colonial past to the digital age, shape the way we see and remember violence.

Can we ever truly look without being complicit?
And is there another way to care?

The screening will be followed by a discussion with brand strategist, arts writer, educator currently Artistic Director at Alserkal, Kevin Jones.