Alfreda’s Cinema and Water Street Projects presents an interactive work-in-progress screening and discussion surrounding the development of NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN, the debut narrative feature film by Cecile Emeke, a pioneering Black British and Jamaican filmmaker, who is currently celebrating 10 years of her creative practice across broadcast television, independent film and artist's moving image, within documentary, comedy and experiment cinema. A decade ago, Emeke broke the internet with ACKEE & SALTFISH and STROLLING, which led to her directing HBO’s INSECURE, Idris Elba’s IN THE LONG RUN, and the Tate Modern commission THE ANCESTORS CAME, on the life and work of the New York native Faith Ringgold. NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN is the filmmaker’s first narrative feature length drama, blending speculative fiction with Black diasporic magical realism, set in a world where only Black people inhabit the Earth and immortality has existed for so long, that both death and other races are regarded as mythological conspiracy theories from ancient, less advanced civilizations. This event represents a significant milestone for the filmmaker and Alfreda's Cinema's audienc, the WSA community as we experience the distinct voice and perspective of an artist who has made significant contributions to Black British storytelling, deeply engaging with themes of time, cosmology, and cultural production through the lens of the Black diasporic experience.

NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN has been in development with BBC Films for the past six years, starting four years into Emeke's creative practice, and has undergone many transformations throughout the process. Emeke has assembled a curated selection of related past films, alongside visual treatment excerpts, scripts, and a private instagram project she has developed for this film since 2019. This work-in-progress format event offers a rare glimpse into the evolving vision of a filmmaker and provides an opportunity for the audience to contribute to the creative process through conversation and inquiry. Emeke will showcase various stages of the narrative’s development from its initial conception to the present, with the story’s conclusion still fluid and open to change as she is in the final stages of development.

Water Street Projects and WSA

Water Street Projects is a roving interdisciplinary nonprofit platform amplifying creative voices. Our projects include performance art, fairs, festivals, music shows, culinary experiences, and visual arts which champion diversity and global points of view. Our fluid and expansive attitude for entertainment and education invokes the spirit of Cedric Price’s never-realized Fun Palace commissioned by Joan Littlewood—a forum for a laboratory of fun and a university of the streets.

Launched in 2015 by Melissa Lyde, Alfreda’s Cinema is working towards becoming the only microcinema in Brooklyn to operate under the leadership of a Black woman with a mission to screen films that celebrate Black and non-Black people of color.

Ahead of the screening, Alfreda’s Cinema hosts a warm happy hour with Cecile Emeke and guests of WSA to interact directly and share insights into the creative process.

Following the screening there will be an interactive A&Q session, exploring the prominent themes that surface within the collective consciousness and field awareness of all attendees in response to the material, inviting the audience to contribute to a discourse on Cecile Emeke’s growing body of work.

Alfreda’s x WSP, an interactive with Cecile Emeke