Director Nadia Latif's lockdown culture recommendations, from Morgan Parker to If Beale Street Could Talk

In a new series, London’s leading arts figures reveal the books, films, TV and more they're loving in lockdown.

Theatre and film director Nadia Latif​ gave us her recommendations, from Morgan Parker's poetry to the If Beale Street Could Talk film score.

Music

I normally work at home while listening to 12 hour YouTube loops of industrial air-conditioning (no judgment! it’s very soothing!). But when I’m in need of something a bit more rousing, I listen to film scores – my favourites at the moment are Phantom Thread, Les Revenants, Jackie, and If Beale Street Could Talk.

TV

I just devoured both series of Kingdom (Netflix) in under a week – come for the scares in this lush medieval-Korean-political-thriller-zombie series, stay for the amazing hats.

Film

Uptight (Amazon Prime) – this 1968 film about a group of African-American activists radicalising after the assassination of Martin Luther King and preparing for violent racial conflict couldn’t feel more apt right now. The stop motion anthology animation This Magnificent Cake! (Vimeo) tells stories of the brutal Belgian colonisation of the Congo. It’s strange and horrifying and utterly brilliant. The Platform (Netflix) is a Spanish horror, which has lucked (or not) into extreme-zeitgeist – a terrifying parable on our inability as a human race to equally share basic resources.

Reading

I’ve been finding committing to novels difficult, but the poetry of Morgan Parker (“Magical Negro”) and Claudia Rankine (“Citizen”) are so rich I can basically reread them every night.