Hostile Film Screening
After decades of hostile immigration policies, Britain has reached a crisis point. With Brexit, the Points Based Immigration System, and the Nationality and Borders Bill taking effect, Hostile asks: once the ‘hostile environment’ has targeted all migrants, who will it extend to next?
The Intellectual Forum is screening Hostile, an award-winning feature-length documentary written, produced, and directed by BAFTA-longlisted filmmaker Sonita Gale. It focuses on the UK’s complicated relationship with its migrant communities.
Told through the stories of four participants from Black and Asian backgrounds, the film reveals the impact of the evolving ‘hostile environment’ – a term used by the UK government in 2012 to illustrate the atmosphere they wanted to create for migrants, with the intention of provoking them to leave of their own accord.
The film explores how the lives of international students, members of the Windrush generation and ‘Highly-Skilled Migrants’ have been affected.
After the film, we will be joined by the writer, director, and producer, Sonita Gale, for a Q&A.
About the film
Sonita’s debut feature documentary as director, Hostile is an award-winning and BAFTA and BIFA-longlisted film exposing the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants living in the UK. Hostile has screened across the country at Picturehouse and independent cinemas, and has been selected for a number of international film festivals, including the NorthWestFest Film Festival, UK Asian Film Festival, Manchester Film Festival, Budapest Movie awards, ZagrebDox, Catalina Film Festival, British Urban Film Festival and the Berlin Lift Off Film Festival. In 2021, the film debuted at Raindance Film Festival and was an official selection of Cambridge Film Festival, London Migration Film Festival, and the South London Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary Feature.
Hostile received a special mention for the Award of Excellence at the Impact DOCS Awards 2022, an honourable mention for Best Indie Film at the Best Indie Film Awards 2022. The film was also a finalist in the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (in the ‘Supreme Award’ and ‘Best Director - International’ categories), and won Best Documentary Feature at Filmocracy Fest 2022 and the Roxbury International Film Festival 2022.
