In the Artangel Collection
Jitterbug is a coming of age story that continues Akingbad’s study of power, urbanism and stance through a day in the life of an eighteen-year-old student. The single screen short film has been exhibited in film festivals, cinemas, galleries and museums, nationally and internationally. The film has also inspired discussions for young people in schools and youth groups.
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London belongs to us
Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi
Ayo Akingbade’s Jitterbug offers a glimpse into the daily life of Afeni, a smart teenager, and it’s her perspective that guides us through the film. There is something amiss, a sense of foreboding, difficult to shake, but we push it aside happily distracted by Afeni, content and floating through a sun-drenched corner of Hackney, East London, dressed in her school uniform, rucksack full with textbooks and dreams of becoming first in her school to attend Cambridge University. She is at ease even as the streets she’s known all her life subtly change. For Afeni this is home. Making her way to school, a runner collides with her, she is briefly surprised but remains in her reveries, walking past the upmarket coffeeshop, which is right next to the greasy spoon, that’s been there for decades serving up cooked breakfasts and home-cooked meals for lunch and tea. The familiar markers of Afeni’s Hackney remain: ethnic food shops, the barbers, the people – diverse, chaotic, the leafy green estates, bright spacious council homes built for the wellbeing of all.
Jitterbug touches upon the “regeneration” of a housing estate, seen from the perspective of one family. This is by now a familiar story: the demolition of council estates without consent or input from the people who live there, the sudden relocation of families, miles from communities they rely on, new homes built but priced beyond the reach of the average worker. Afeni’s response is the natural one, it’s why there is always a story of resistance. Where people’s homes are threatened, communities fight back.
Ayo Akingbade
Ayo Akingbade is an artist, writer, and film director born in Hackney, London. Her work addresses notions of power, urbanism, and stance.
In 2017 she received a Special Mention Award at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and the Sonja Savić Award at the Alternative Film/Video Festival Belgrade for 'Tower XYZ' . In 2020, 'So They Say' was honoured with a Special Mention at Open City Documentary Festival.
Akingbade's work has been screened at the BFI London Film Festival, MoMa Doc Fortnight, Whitechapel Gallery, and DocLisboa. Her filmography includes Jitterbug (2022), Sukiyaki (2021), Red Soleil (2021), Fire in My Belly (2021), Deadphant (2020), Hella Trees (2020), Claudette’s Star (2019), So They Say (2019), Dear Babylon (2019), A is for Artist (2018), Street 66 (2018), Tower XYZ (2016), In Ur Eye (2015).
Production Credits
Written and directed by Ayo Akingbade
Produced by Artangel and Ayo Akingbade
Executive Producers – James Lingwood, Michael Morris, Cressida Day
Associate Producers – Marina Doritis and Phoebe Roberts
Editor – Taina Galis
Composer – Lolina
Sound and Foley Design – House of Noise
Director of Photography – Emma Dalesman
Production Coordinator – Sophie MacManus
Cast (in order of appearance):
Afeni Omolade – Amara Okereke
Precious Omolade – Doreene Blackstock
Goldie Bah – Donna Banya
Amma – Afi Okaidja
Gonzo – Darryl Dale
Tacita – Xanthe Acquah-Storey
Connor – Nathaniel Powell
Miss Dean – Victoria Lloyd
Professor Sachs – Michael Gould
Julius Omolade – Yinka Awoni
Tyrone Brooks – Hayden McLean
Kofo Omolade – Kenyah Sandy
Guest appearance – Elizabeth Price as herself
Supporting Cast (in order of appearance)
Jogger – Zuleika Voegele-Downing
Classroom student – Yasmin Herron-Isa
Classroom student – Georgie Udale
Student – Alparslan Yusuf
Student – Sidney Kerr
Student – Saniah Tasin
Footballer – Neo Lekhela
Footballer – Taheem Hassan
Footballer – Unis Ali
Footballer – Omarion Johnson
Postman – Jeffrey Uzoukwu
Production
Editor – Taina Galis
Composer – Lolina
Sound and Foley Design – House of Noise
Director of Photography – Emma Dalesman
Line Producer – Earleatha Oppon
Costume Designer – Natalie Wilkins
Production Designer – Louis Simonon
Head of Hair and Make up – Ezana Ove
Production Manager – Chioma Ezeh
Production Coordinator – Sophie MacManus
Production Assistant – Caroline Wilson
First Assistant Directors – Carlotta Beck Peccoz, Sylvia Notermans Piattoni
Second Assistant Director – Elise Martin
First Assistant Camera – Jon Mitchell
Second Assistant Camera – Joana Magalhães
Camera Trainee – André Turazzi
Stedicam Operator – Austin Phillips
Sound Recordists – Miguel Rodriguez Puente, Jonathan Eato
Art Directors – Zia Knives Zohra, Andrew Smith
Costume Supervisor – Daniel Dioguardi
Costume Assistant – Solita Nanton
Hair and Make Up designer – Blessing Kambanga
Hair and Make Up Assistants – Isabel Hink, Natalie Messino, Leandro Annunziato, Bertha Addai
Gaffer – Yan Murawski
Sparks – Justice Akushie Junior, Zen Wallace, Alex Modu
Floor Runner – Jeffrey Uzoukwu
Script Supervisor – Sam Burton
Post Production Assistant – Jasmine Johnson
Locations Assistant - Kieran Anscomb
Covid Supervisor – Tera Pechmannova
Unit Drivers – Steven Oluwo, Abdul Kushan, John Isaacs, David Longworth, Jack Till
Camera Van – Scene Covered
Costume and Facilities Van – Steff Pitsillides
Security – Movie Guard Security
Special Effects – Real SFX
Action Vehicle – ELS Action Vehicles
Still Photographs – Mustafa Hussein, Daragh Soden
Post Production Facilities – The Ark
Title and End Roller Design – The Morrison Studio
Editing Systems – SL Vision, The Nest Post
Production Insurance – King and Power Insurance Brokers
Camera and Lighting Equipment – Panavision and Greenkit
Film Lab Processing – Cinelab
Music
MY TRUTH
Written by Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie, Simon Raymonde
Published by Universal Music Publishing Ltd.
Performed by The Cocteau Twins
CHERRIES
Written by Laynah Mariah Millicent Juma and Ian Garland
Published by Metropolis Songs and Layfullstop
Performed by Layfullstop
Special thanks
Jenn Nkiru, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, NTS Radio, Duchamp & Sons, The Petchey Academy and Richard Wentworth
Image: Production of Ayo Akingbade's Jitterbug (2022). Photograph: Mustafa Hussein.
Credits
Jitterbug is an Artangel production.
Commissioned by Artangel and the Museum of the Home.
Artangel is generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, Guardian Angels and The Company of Angels.
From the top:
(Images 1 - 3) Still from Jitterbug, Ayo Akingbade 2021.
4. Ayo Akingbade. Photograph by Hannah Lister