Dear Othermother (behind-the-scenes images), dir. Amber Akaunu, UK, 2025. Photographer: Kolade T Ladipo.
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, Marie-Anne McQuay, Guest Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2025 and Katie O’Callaghan, an award-winning Arts for Health Specialist and Creative Wellbeing Artist. 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, Marie-Anne McQuay, Guest Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2025 and Katie O’Callaghan, an award-winning Arts for Health Specialist and Creative Wellbeing Artist. 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 Marie-Anne McQuay is Guest Curator of Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK which runs until 14th September, presenting new work by 30 international artists across the city. She is on secondment from Arts&Heritage as Director of Projects and was previously Head of Programme at the Bluecoat, Liverpool where she curated exhibitions and commissions by Larissa Sansour, Adham Faramawy, Suki Chan, Jade Montserrat, and Grace Ndiritu. She was also Guest International Curator for Wales in Venice 2019 with artist Sean Edwards and Curator at Spike Island, Bristol (2007-2013).
Marie-Anne is a nominator for The Arts Foundation Futures Awards, Henry Moore Artist Award and Paul Hamlyn Awards and was a member of the Arts Council Collection Acquisitions panel between 2022-2025. She is on the Advisory of Board of At The Library, a programme of artist-led projects and happenings in community libraries in Sefton and External Examiner for Art Galleries & Museum Studies MA, University of Leicester.
Katie O’Callaghan is an award-winning Arts for Health Specialist and Creative Wellbeing Artist who lives in Liverpool with her daughter Rosie who is her inspiration for most things, especially normalising and supporting access to the arts for all.
With a career in creative arts spanning over 25 years, Katie has designed and delivered many innovative, evidence-informed programs that use creativity as a tool for healing, empowerment, and connection.
Katie has worked across the UK with mental and physical healthcare settings and this year her work was published for the National Arts in Hospital Guidance.
The last two years have seen Katie return professionally to her first love, performing. Katie and lifelong friend Amie Boylan, who also features in 'Dear Othermother', have most recently joined artistic forces to professionally co produce “You’re Invited” a life affirming, dopamine inducing creative wellbeing project, workshops and podcast that celebrates people individually and their tribes.
07:00 pm
Wed, 20 Aug 2025
Cinema 1
Ticket information
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Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
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- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
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- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
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