Category Archives: Media

Lessons for Trump and us all from the Ronald Reagan Memorial Library

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

“I wonder what it’s all about, and why We suffer so, when little things go wrong? We make our life a struggle When life should be a song…” We should perhaps we grateful that the teenage Ronald Reagan never grew … Continue reading →

Posted in History, journalism, Media, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Why Nerve is the selfie generation’s Desperately Seeking Susan

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

Discussing Nerve and immersive gaming in film with Naomi Alderman on BBC Front Row on Radio 4 on August 11th and iplayer after.  The Green Dress. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before in New York the moment it appeared … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Games, Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

When Cathy met Ken: Revisiting Cathy Come Home in Brexit Britain

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

The other night I watched Ken Loach meet Cathy – or rather the young actress Elle Payne, playing Cathy in a Cardboard Citizens’ staging of his 1966 landmark TV play Cathy Come Home. The production featured many actors with experience of homelessness. … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History, journalism, Media, Politics, TV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

From Jane Eyre to Mary Poppins – de-coding the Brontes on film

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

I wrote this blogpost for a panel discussion we held with a screening of Jane Eyre (1943) at the Picturehouse Cinema at the National Media Museum in Bradford last Saturday. Novelist Mick Jackson, Bronte Parsonage Museum arts officer Lauren Livesey … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Culture, Film, Media | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

The future sound and vision of Liverpool: Biennial special preview

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

Tonight’s BBC Front Row is a special programme mostly recorded on location in Liverpool previewing this year’s Biennial of Contemporary Art that runs till October. I particularly enjoyed talking to Mark Leckey about his dreamscape film about his visual memory … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Environment, Media, Radio | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The economics of burkas, bikinis & The Nice Guys

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

  According to a recent BBC World Service programme about Malawi, the nation’s population hit 17.6 million this year and is expected to double by 2040, which the country’s finance minister described as “scary”. “A ticking timebomb of poverty and … Continue reading →

Posted in Business/Economics, Comedy, Culture, Film, Media, Religion, TV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bryan Singer on: Chariots of the Gods, Valkyrie, Star Trek & the mythology of X-Men Apocalypse

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

Here’s my full interview with the very well-read Bryan Singer on X-Men Apocalypse. We talked the Bible, classic Star Trek, the 60s vogue for theories on space seeding aliens, and why the Holocaust is a presence in so many of … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Film, Germany, History, Media, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The trouble with superheroes taking on terrorism..

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

I love superhero comics and they’ve never been handled with more love than by writers and filmmakers who grew up on them too. And yet.. And yet.. In the latest Captain America Civil War film, when a terrorist bomb goes … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Film, Media, Politics, War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

At home with type: Alan Kitching – master of letter press

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

All photos copyright Jerome Weatherald/BBC. No re-use without permission To step inside Alan Kitching’s studio is to enter the past and the future present. The rich fragrance of ink and wooden trays transports you to a pre digital world.  This … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Design, Media, Radio, TV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Why Obi Wan Kenobi is pure evil & why R2 D2 is Moses

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Samira Ahmed

An excellent panel of minds got together at Conway Hall’s latest #LondonThinks event last Thursday to discuss the theology and ethics of Star Wars films. You can watch it in full here on Youtube (below). Or open it in another … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Film, History, Media, Religion, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized, War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment