Finalist for the Manchester Culture Awards

Kooj Chuhan & Crossing Footprints: culture arts and climate justice work in Manchester 2022

A quick snapshot of work by Kooj Chuhan and Crossing Footprints showing brief excerpts of five creative projects dealing with climate justice. These were highlighted in Kooj’s nomination by Community Arts North West for the #ManchesterCultureAwards 2022 (sustainability category). Featuring collaborations with Manchester Art Gallery , Amani Creatives , Emmanuela Yogolelo, Manchester Histories and Ayna Arts.

Now Kooj is a finalist for the Manchester Culture Awards. Results are to be announced at the awards ceremony 24th Nov 2022.

Climate Justice at Manchester Histories Festival!

Crossing Footprints has developed a set of events focusing on Climate Justice at Manchester Histories Festival 8-12 June 2022. This year’s theme for the Festival is the history of climate change, for which Manchester has played a pivotal role as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

Climate Change is a Race and Migration Is for Climate Justice at Manchester Histories Festival 2022
photo credit: Joe Brusky

We’ve organised four events in solidarity with low income and racially marginalised communities, including a panel discussion ‘Climate Change is a Race and Migration Issue‘ followed by a powerful Bangladeshi theatre piece ‘GHOORNI‘ by Ayna Arts, both at Manchester Central Library on Friday 10th June from 6pm. Then on Saturday 11th June at 6.15pm the singer-songwriter Emmanuela Yogolelo from DR Congo will perform a music set focused on Climate Justice at Angel Meadow. Finally, throughout the Festival the ‘Climate Connections‘ set of short video films made mostly by low income and diverse communities in Oldham responding to climate change will be exhibited on a screen at Oldham Art Gallery, with an informal talk by project director Kooj Chuhan at 1pm, Saturday 11th June.

Video still from video by Emmanuela Yogolelo for Climate Justice at Manchester Histories Festival

More details about our events for Climate Justice at Manchester Histories Festival below:

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Short film “No Trace” starring the late great Brian Morgan, now on YouTube

Brian’s very recent and terribly tragic death is a loss to so many of us, he was a remarkable man and actor – probably the best I have worked with.  I have now put the short film I directed, written by Peter Kalu and of course starring Brian Morgan, on to YouTube so its hopefully easier to find.  (Up until now its only been on Vimeo).  Here it is, hopefully a fitting tribute:

No Trace

A short drama film which explores the abuse and haunting of the city, the daily struggle to maintain a shred of integrity amidst the pathetic cycles of people who need to run away and cover their tracks as the only way they can gain some control over their future.

These cycles are a mirror for Darryl Johnson, a black low-life private detective forever haunted by his previous abuse when in the army. He is addicted to his job specialising in finding other people’s children who have run away from home to escape their own hidden and secretive problems that threaten to engulf them. These sordid cases overlap with his own past, in a city where he is always painfully aware of the back-street disposability of all the characters he engages with. But there’s this case about a girl called Emma that gets to him, just one case too many, or maybe he just can’t hide from himself any longer… Continue reading