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City of London

The Terror and the Time + Caribbean Honeymoon No. 2 + Panel Discussion

Saturday 1st August 2026

Part of the Barbican’s acclaimed Project a Black Planet film season, The Terror and the Time + Caribbean Honeymoon No. 2 brings together two remarkable Guyanese films that explore the country’s political history, colonial legacy and journey towards independence. Accompanied by a panel discussion, the programme examines how cinema has documented the struggles for liberation while giving voice to the hopes, conflicts and aspirations that shaped modern Guyana.

 

Opening the evening is Caribbean Honeymoon No. 2 (1960), a recently restored documentary directed by Edric Connor, the pioneering Guyanese actor, singer and filmmaker. At first glance the film appears to be a traditional Caribbean travelogue, celebrating Guyana’s spectacular rivers, forests and landscapes. However, Connor cleverly subverts the conventions of the tourist film, revealing how the country’s extraordinary natural wealth was exploited through colonial industries that extracted timber, minerals and agricultural products for British markets. The result is both visually captivating and quietly political, exposing the economic realities that lay beneath the postcard image of Britain’s former colony.

The programme continues with The Terror and the Time (1978), directed by the Victor Jara Collective, one of the most significant political films to emerge from the Caribbean. Originally subtitled Colonialism, the film draws inspiration from the writings of revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon while weaving together the poetry of celebrated Guyanese writer Martin Carter. Through archive footage, interviews and powerful narration, it charts the turbulent years leading to Guyana’s independence, focusing on the political rivalry between Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham, whose competing visions profoundly shaped the nation’s future. Though rarely screened, the film has become recognised as a landmark of anti-colonial cinema and an important precursor to later Black British political documentaries such as Handsworth Songs.

Following the screenings, audiences are invited to remain for a special panel discussion featuring Carinya Sharples, writer, educator and researcher specialising in Guyanese literature and identity, alongside Xavier Alexandre Pillai, curator and programmer at the British Film Institute (BFI). Together they will explore Guyana’s cinematic heritage, the preservation of politically significant films and the wider importance of Caribbean filmmaking within the history of Pan-African culture and anti-colonial movements.

This event forms part of the Barbican’s wider Project a Black Planet season, which explores the global influence of Pan-Africanism through more than fifty exhibitions, screenings, performances and public conversations. By pairing two rarely seen works with contemporary discussion, The Terror and the Time + Caribbean Honeymoon No. 2 offers audiences a rare opportunity to engage with the political history of Guyana through the lens of cinema, highlighting film’s enduring role in documenting struggles for freedom, justice and national identity.

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