A Story Of Bones

As the Environmental Officer for Saint Helena’s troubled £285m ($360m) airport project, Annina Van Neel learned of the island’s most terrible atrocity – an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans. It is one of the most significant traces of the transatlantic slave trade still on earth.

★★★★
“A moving, empathic story”
Leslie Felperin, The Guardian

★★★★
“A gripping, thought-provoking film”
Danny Leigh, Financial Times

★★★★
“A Story of Bones is of global historical significance, told at a human level that will at once move and outrage you”
John Bleasdale, The Times

★★★★
“Powerful and sobering”
Maria Duarte, Morning Star

★★★★
Total Film

Where to find A Story Of Bones in cinemas

 

Saint Helena island – a tiny British Overseas Territory in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean – is so remote that the only means of arrival is the world’s last Royal Mail Ship, a six-day journey from Cape Town.

For centuries Saint Helena has existed in near isolation from the rest of the world, a potent symbol of Britain’s colonial past, epitomized by its most famous tourist attraction – Napoleon Bonaparte’s empty tomb.

As the Environmental Officer for Saint Helena’s troubled £285m airport project, Annina Van Neel learned of the island’s most terrible atrocity – an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans. It is one of the most significant traces of the transatlantic slave trade still on earth.

Haunted by this historical injustice, Annina fights alongside renowned African American preservationist Peggy King Jorde and a group of disenfranchised islanders – many of them descendants of enslaved people – for the proper memorialisation of these forgotten victims.

The resistance they face exposes disturbing truths about the UK’s colonial past – and present.

In charting her years-long journey to this moment of catharsis, A STORY OF BONES documents Annina’s extraordinary transformation from a disempowered bystander to an undaunted social justice activist—and one who is determined to advocate for a community that has long been denied a voice.

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Released in the UK from Friday 2nd August

  • Director: Joseph Curran and Dominic Aubrey de Vere
  • Year: 2022
  • Country: UK/USA
  • Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Production company: Archer’s Mark
  • Cert: 12A

IMDB

IN CINEMAS

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JANUARY

Portsmouth  |   Portsmouth Film society  |  Thursday 9th & Sunday 19th January

 

PREVIOUS SCREENINGS

London  |  Lexi Cinema (preview)  |  Sunday 23rd June
Sheffield  |  Showroom  |  From Friday 2nd August
Cardiff – Chapter  |  From Friday 2nd August
London – Barbican  |  From Friday 2nd August
London – Garden Cinema  |  From Saturday 3rd August
London  |  Phoenix East Finchley   |  Sunday 4th August, 3.45pm (+ Annina van Neel Q&A
Liverpool  |  Picturehouse at FACT  |  Monday 5th August, 7pm (+ Annina van Neel Q&A)
London  |  Lexi Cinema  |  Monday 5th – Thursday 8th August
Leeds  |  Hyde Park Picture House  |  Tuesday 6th August
London  |  Bertha Dochouse  |  Wednesday 7th August, 7.20pm (+ Annina van Neel Q&A)
Bristol  |  Watershed  |   Thursday 8th August, 6pm (+ Annina van Neel Q&A)
Dundee  |  Dundee Contemporary Arts  |  From Friday 9th August
London  |  Bertha Dochouse  |  From Friday 16th August
Aberystwyth  |  Aberystwyth Arts Centre  |  Tuesday 20th & Wednesday 21st August
Pwllheli  |  Neuadd Dwyfor  |  Tuesday 10th September
London – The New Black Film Collective |  Saturday 14th September
Hull – Hull Independent Cinema (@ Hull Truck Theatre)  |  Thursday 26th September
Depot – Lewes  |  From Friday 27th September
Cambridge  |  Jesus College  |  Saturday 12th October
Colchester  |  Firstsite  |  Saturday 19th & Thursday 24th October
Plymouth  |  Plymouth Arts Cinema  |  Saturday 26th October + Introduction by Helen Thomas
Shrewsbury  |  Old Market Hall  |  Wednesday 30th & Thursday 31st October
Much Wenlock  |  The Edge Arts Centre  |  Thursday 14th November
Exeter  |  Phoenix  |  Sunday 17th November

 

 

 

_____

★★★★

“Joseph Curran and Dominic Aubrey de Vere’s powerful and sobering debut feature documentary shines a much-needed poignant light on British colonialism, slavery, racism and identity.”

Maria Duarte
Morning Star

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