Lauren is currently undertaking the Producing Masters at the National Film and Television School.
PUBLIC PROGRAMMING & FILM CURATION
London Short Film Festival (2025)
- Upcoming: I am curating a screening of contemporary Caribbean films entitled ‘Everywhere We Are Islands’.
- I curated a screening and masterclass for South London Gallery.
- The screening: ‘Carnival as an Archive’ presents Shari’s ever evolving archive and lens, exploring the changing meaning and shape of carnival across the diaspora. The programme includes the first four episodes of her Mas Prep series, which explores the rich tradition of Trinidad’s carnival, celebrating the artists and performers and sharing behind-the-scenes footage. The screening was followed by a discussion with Shari Petti and hosted by writer and cultural producer Yaya Azariah Clarke and Dr June Givanni from the June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive (JGPACA).
The masterclass: Emerging Filmmakers Masterclass: June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive. This masterclass is aimed at emerging filmmakers, scholars, artists and anyone interested in engaging with cultural memory and history through archives.
- I curated the public programme in response to Keith Piper’s Rex Whistler commission. It consisted of three key events that further contextualised Keith’s research and film, as well as offering reflection and debate around what this commission symbolises more widely for the sector, and what the methodology public institutions are using to reckon with these contested artworks and artefacts. These events were titled: ‘Seeing in Colour: Race in the 1920’s’, ‘The Fictional Account: Keith Piper and Michelle Williams Gamaker in Conversation’ and ‘Time Will Tell: The Future Museum and Contested Objects’
- I led ‘Undocumented’, an outreach project, that ran in partnership with The New Black Film Collective, seeking to build relationships with London’s Black communities to introduce them to, and support them to develop a deeper interest in screen heritage and its power to tell our stories. It is stage one of London Screen Archives’ wider ambition for a screen heritage preservation project, with the focus on building trust, interest and engagement.
- In this role as part of LSFF Orbital, I am responsible for engaging local, multicultural communities and young people, identifying new opportunities for the festival to expand their work and potential avenues for new partnerships and funding.
- I curated an event for National Windrush Day, celebrating the 75th year anniversary. I curated a spoken word event titled ‘Speak Pon Dem’ featuring poets: Kareem Parkins-Brown, Nathaniel Coles, Maia Watkiss, Kat Francois and Zena Edwards.
- I curated and facilitated the Young People’s Programme, providing a range of engaging and multidisciplinary events and sustained artist-led projects. Projects have included a collaboration with GALA festival; a gallery takeover across both sites and a collaborative podcast platformed by the White Pube.
- I was responsible for producing the 2 year long Hackney Windrush Public Programme which revolves around the installation of the first statues in the UK to commemorate the Windrush generation. In addition to the project management of art commissions, I was responsible for devising and delivering a public programme that maximises engagement around the works of Veronica Ryan and Thomas J Price.
- I assisted on 'Yuh Figet Yuhself', a creative programme co-led by an intergenerational group of Peckham residents and multi-disciplinary artist Beverley Bennett.