Dear Othermother (behind-the-scenes images), dir. Amber Akaunu, UK, 2025. Photographer: Kolade T Ladipo.
Book tickets
Connecting Thin Black Lines 1985 – 2025
Amber Akaunu's new film Dear Othermother, commissioned by Liverpool Biennial 2025, celebrates a deeply personal tale of friendship, single motherhood and alternative, matriarchal community networks in Liverpool 8, one of the oldest Black communities in the UK.
Through letter writing, conversations and retrospective walks, Amber delves into her childhood, as the daughter of a single mother, contextualising her experiences with single mothers today.
This one-off screening will be followed by a conversation between Amber and Marie-Anne McQuay, Guest Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2025. You will also receive a print zine to write your own letter to your othermother.
Click here to explore the full exhibition and event programme.
Amber Akaunu's new film Dear Othermother, commissioned by Liverpool Biennial 2025, celebrates a deeply personal tale of friendship, single motherhood and alternative, matriarchal community networks in Liverpool 8, one of the oldest Black communities in the UK.
Through letter writing, conversations and retrospective walks, Amber delves into her childhood, as the daughter of a single mother, contextualising her experiences with single mothers today.
This one-off screening will be followed by a conversation between Amber and Marie-Anne McQuay, Guest Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2025. You will also receive a print zine to write your own letter to your othermother.
Click here to explore the full exhibition and event programme.
Bios
Amber Akaunu is a Liverpool-born Nigerian/German artist and filmmaker. Akaunu's creative practice combines cinema and art, which she uses as tools to document and imagine Black British regional stories. She explores concepts surrounding race and identity through her ancestral history and perspective using photography, film, pencil and illustration to present her findings. Her research-informed films often explore Liverpool's international links both personally and historically.
Marie-Anne McQuay is Guest Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2025. She is on secondment from Arts&Heritage as Director of Projects (2022-) working on commissions with Hetain Patel, Savinder Bual, Vanley Burke, Luke Fowler and Hanna Tuulikki.
Marie-Anne was Head of Programme at the Bluecoat, Liverpool (2015 – June 2022) where she curated exhibitions and commissions by Larissa Sansour, Adham Faramawy, Suki Chan, Jade Montserrat, Serena Korda, Jonathan Baldock, Elaine Mitchener, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Deborah Roberts, Sumuyya Khader, Frances Disley and Grace Ndiritu. She was Guest International Curator for Wales in Venice 2019 with artist Sean Edwards and lead organisation Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham. She was Curator at Spike Island, Bristol (2007-2013), working with artists including Elizabeth Price, Laure Prouvost, Can Altay, Sonia Boyce, Cevdet Erek, Haroon Mirza, Cezary Bodzianowski, Melissa Gordon, Sean Edwards, Uriel Orlow and Jesse Jones.
Marie-Anne was a member of Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee 2022-25 and Jury for The Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2024: Visual Art. She is on the Advisory of Board of At The Library, a programme of artist-led projects and happenings in community libraries in Sefton (2023-). She is External Examiner for Art Galleries & Museum Studies MA, University of Leicester 2023-26.
Book tickets
07:00 pm
Wed, 20 Aug 2025
Cinema 1
Wednesday 20 August, 7pm
£15 full price / £13 concessions / £5 25 & under
(Includes a free exhibition ticket for the day of the event, accessed from a member of staff at the front desk.)
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
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