Smoking Dogs Films is currently developing a feature documentary on the incredible life and work of Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr.  The film is due for release in 2009.

The company devlopment rosta also includes a feature length  drama documentary set across 8 countries in Africa provisionally entitled 2010.

Smoking Dogs Films is in pre- production on THE BLACK PRESIDENT: the world’s first feature drama documentary on the lives and times of Fela Kuti, the controversial composer, musician, countercultural hero and architect of Afrobeat.

Smoking Dogs is also working on two films for a gallery setting with Turner prize nominee Yinka Shonibare.

2007 was a busy year. John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul and David Lawson were artists featured in the first major retrospective of the Black Audio Film Collective in the UK in 2007. The retrospective opened at the Foundation for Arts and Creative Technology in Liverpool and then The Arnolfini gallery in Bristol.  The third leg of the retrospective is due to open in London in 2009. The retrospective encompassed all the feature films and documentaries made by the Collective and were screened in a specially designed gallery setting -designed by acclaimed architect and designer David Adjaye – architect of the new Nobel Prize Centre in Oslo.

The show received rave reviews in:

The Guardian

Frieze Magazine

John Akomfrah collected the OBE he was awarded in the New Years Honours list for his Services to Film on Thursday 28th February from Buckingham Palace in London.

John Akomfrah was “in conversation” with Alan Marcus on Tuesday 11th March 2008 at the University of Aberdeen, discussing aesthetics and  political film making. 

SCREENINGS

The lyrical and sumptuous film, Stan Tracey -  The Godfather of British Jazz, will be screening at the in Newcastle  as part of the Sage Gateshead International Jazz Festival on Sunday 30th March 2008.  Those who want to know about the origins of British Jazz can do no better than catch this wonderful homage to to a great maestro.

Acclaimed and award winning films Handsworth Songs, Twilght City and Who Needs a Heart will be screening as part of a Windrush Season on 22nd June 2008 at Rich Mix in Shoreditch, London – a must see triple bill.

AWARDS
The Producers and Director have between them won over twenty international awards including the prestigious British Film Institute Grierson Award for Documentary, The Best Film at the Sydney Film Festival, a Gold Hugo at Chicago International Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Melbourne Film Festival.

In 2003 STAN TRACEY was shortlisted for the prestigious documentary award, The GRIERSON AWARD for Best Arts Programme of the Year.

In 2000, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG, GOLDIE: WHEN SATURN RETURNZ and RIOT were awarded the Grand Digital Prize for their unique use of digital technology at the Cheonju International Film Festival in South Korea .