Sheku Kanneh-Mason

An intensely musical encounter with the young British star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who performs and discusses his favorite pieces. On the program: Bach, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, as well as Bob Marley and Leonard Cohen.

Take a celebrated musical genius, some sibling rivalry, an unknown manuscript, a dash of sass and one sensational revelation and what have you got? As moving as it is joyous, this is the story of a very modern woman – who just happened to live 200 years ago.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason made history in 2016 when he became the first black winner of the BBC Young Musician competition. Sheku has six musically gifted siblings and this film explores their extraordinary talents and issues of diversity in classical music. We follow Sheku and his brothers and sisters and examine the sacrifices that parents Stuart and Kadie make in order to support their children in pursuing their musical dreams. Told through the prism of family life we get an understanding of what it is that drives this family to be the best musicians they can be. At the heart of the story is 17-year-old Sheku, and we see him coming to terms with his Young Musician win and the pressures and opportunities it brings. His life is changing dramatically as he now has to learn to deal with the challenges of becoming a world-renowned cellist.

Shot across 16mm, VHS, DV, and Digital, Breakfast in Kisumu is a personal homage to the 20-year journey of renowned professor and political activist Rok Ajulu. Filmed across six countries between Europe and Africa, with a proxy-archival quality, it follows Rok’s account of his struggles as an exiled freedom fighter of the post-colonial, apartheid era. In conversation with his daughter, he tells of his numerous deportations, prison sentences, and academic career. As Rok recounts the collapse of the apartheid regime, Breakfast in Kisumu shows us a homecoming: his journey back to Africa for the transition of the African National Congress (ANC) from a liberation movement into a governing party, his marriage into the Sisulu Family, and the continental significance of 1994.

The big names behind the big stories. Laura Kuenssberg talks to those making the news, inside and outside politics.