Award-winning British-Ghanaian artist Larry Achiampong visits Bristol for Q&A with his feature debut

The British-Ghanian artist Larry Achiampong turns his hand to cinema with Wayfinder, an epic film that tracks the progress of the Wanderer, a young girl played by Perside Rodrigues, on an intrepid journey across England through a post-pandemic, post-Brexit landscape.

Achiampong works in film, sculpture, installation, sound, collage, music and performance. His work draws on popular culture and his communal and personal heritage.

Wayfinder, which opens at Watershed on Fri 8 July (with Achiampong visiting in person for a Director’s Q&A after the Mon 11 July 18:00 screening), is set in a pandemic, and follows the Wanderer as she passes through different towns, regions and landscapes (Hadrian’s Wall, a housing estate in Wolverhampton, the National Gallery at night, the sea at Margate and more), encountering people, stories, and situations on her way.

It draws on British traditions of travel and exploration of the landscape and sea to reflect on class and economic exclusion, belonging and displacement, cultural heritage and the meaning of home.

Achimapong says: "This project feels like a poignant moment for me, not just professionally and as a maker of films, but also personally. It has felt very important and necessary, especially at this point in time to be able to bring this range of subject matter and conversations to the table at what is increasingly becoming a contentious moment of our times.

“I am so excited to share the expansive vision of this story which marks a new and exciting stage in my art practice. I never set out to create a film of this size, but due to the scope of ideas that evolved along the way, it increasingly became inevitable that this would become my first feature film.”