RÓISÍN TAPPONI

 

RÓISÍN TAPPONI is wearing the Romy no.001. She is a film programmer living in London.

What is the first thing you do in the morning?
Remember my dreams.

What should we be reading?
I’m currently reading a lot of research material about grassroots political film collectives for my PhD, I recommend Working Together: Notes on British Film Collective in the 1970s. It’s an incredibly beautiful book with pamphlets from The Berwick Street Film Collective, London Women’s Film Group, Cinema Action and more.

What do you collect?
Film archival reels and cardigans.

What do you still wish to learn?
How to tell fortune using the sludge at the bottom of Turkish coffee.

What stands the test of time?
Love.

Who are your inspirations? ?
My mum and my community.

Do you have a soundtrack to your life?
Stay With Me by Novelist.

Where do you want to go?
I have a dream to go to Iraq, where my family is from. I am Co-Founder of Independent Iraqi Film Festival (IIFF) and one of my dreams is to be able to host this safely in Baghdad (currently it runs online), and to help establish an industry where the film community there can be supported.

What is most difficult to find in contemporary culture?
Faith.

The best arthouse film(s)?
I work in cinema, so this is difficult! I work primarily with video and documentaries from South-West Asia and North Africa - my streaming service Shasha caters to this - but some other films I’ve enjoyed recently beyond the region are Suneil Sanzgiri’s Letter From Your Far-Off Country (2020), Garrett Bradley’s Time (2020) and Prano Baily-Bond’s Censor (2021).

What do you find humorous?
Literally everything. It’s so important for me to have a sense of humour, especially in the art world!

Any last words?
Look after each other.