Sadia Pineda Hameed in conversation
& 2026 Jarman Award Artist Film Programme

Anak Where Did We Stay? is a single screen edit of a five-channel film by Sadia Pineda Hameed that brings together The Box’s home movie collection and the artist’s personal/family collection. Rasheed Araeen’s chakras, spouting waves, Beatlemania, a basking shark, hula dance, an Enoch Powell protest, tidal islands and seafoam floating into the air—the archives converge across time to tell the story of the artist’s mother’s migration from one archipelago to another: the Philippines to the British Isles.

The film becomes a gathering site for personal and collective experiences of journeys, resilience and belonging. Road trips unexpectedly reenact the archive, footage finds itself out of context, voices commentate the film as if rewatching a home movie together; mimesis, associations and autonomy are central to the retelling.

Other Actors explores the links between bodies and buildings, health and architecture through the lens of Paimio Sanatorium Finland. Designed by Alvar and Aino Aalto and completed between 1929 and 1933, the sanatorium represents a radical shift in design for health. Conceived as an "instrument for healing" the Aaltos' proposed an architecture designed not for the verticality of the healthy body but for the horizontal perspective of the sick. At the time of filming, the sanatorium is at a significant moment in its transition from hospital to a new purpose. As restoration progresses, the film examines its status as a building in flux. The film was made in close collaboration with those who have lived and worked in Paimio Sanatorium, including former maintenance staff, workers at the furniture manufacturer Artek, and surviving architects of the Aaltos' design team, alongside theorists Beatriz Colomina, Heini Hakosalo, and Peter Stadius. Through the film, Sagar asks us to consider what we do with the architectural legacies of modernism that linger in our cultural imaginary, and how we can platform those hidden behind its visual facades.

Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside is a personal account of Black community spaces in the UK, focusing on Caribbean diaspora. By visiting the site of the former Keskidee Centre (a Black arts centre in Islington, London) that is now luxury apartments, the film considers the conditions which allowed this historical space to thrive. Okay Keskidee explores the economic and social reasons which have made gathering in physical space difficult, showing that histories of arts organising go hand in hand with political discourse. Made using optical printing and rostrum cameras, the work uses analogue film processes to address slow ways of thinking around contemporary subjects. Considering the personal connections formed in using these now-obsolete techniques, the film asks whether the digital realm can replace a physical community presence and produce an accessible archive for a new generation.

The Dhaba (roadside Cafe) is a poetic chronicle documenting the migration of two men to Glasgow. Arriving at different historic moments from the Indian subcontinent, their testimonies shed light on the effects of ever-changing British immigration legislation; the lived experience of the interviewees revealing the systematic obfuscations of colonialism and on-going racism.

The Dhaba is part of Syed’s larger The Ring in the Fish project, commissioned by CCA, Glasgow, which encompasses 16mm vignettes, photographs and audio interviews. The Ring in the Fish draws inspiration from the tale of St. Mungo—patron saint and founder of Glasgow—and the story of the fish and the ring, the title becoming a conduit for the transformative nature of both individual and collective narratives inviting an intimate exploration of journeys, separation, memory, and identity. The Dhaba veers away from traditional documentary forms, centring memory and the role imagination holds in migration. The work counterpoints workplace rhythms of communal kitchen work and the concentrated isolation of domestic piece work, with an equestrian statue of Lord Roberts, celebrating his role in putting down what the British call The Indian Mutiny and what Indians refer to as The First War of Independence in 1858, highlighting Syed's interest in architectures of the built environment, as a vessel for both personal and public memorialisation.