Riz Ahmed is a music artist, storyteller, actor and activist. He took the spotlight as the first South Asian actor to win an acting Emmy for his lead role in HBO’s The Night Of. He’s starred in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Venom, Four Lions, Nightcrawler, and the final season of the hit HBO show Girls.
Riz Ahmed rounded off 2020 with The Long Goodbye, a very special digital performance blending music, storytelling and theatre which was a sell-out event when it aired in December. Due to the popularity and interest of this one-off show, it will now air on demand for one month from 28 January until 1 March 2021.
Presented by WeTransfer and developed especially for the digital realm, this online performance was written, filmed and performed entirely by Riz Ahmed and is a companion piece to last year’s critically-acclaimed The Long Goodbye album and the live stage show commissioned by Manchester International Festival (MIF) and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) that was due to take place before the pandemic. Weaving together storytelling, music and immersive sound to guide audiences through an emotional landscape, it tells the story of this moment through a personal journey and asks, ‘how did we get here?’
2020 saw the Emmy Award winning artist release the critically acclaimed album and short film The Long Goodbye, standalone single Once Kings and the revered films Mogul Mowgli and Sound Of Metal, for which Ahmed won Best Actor at Gotham Film Festival.
The Long Goodbye album and short film (directed by Aneil Karia) have already received several prestigious accolades. The record was included in BBC 6 Music and Rough Trade ‘album of the year’ 2020 highlights and the short film has won Best Short at Raindance Film Festival, Best Special Project at the UK Music Awards, Best Digital Music Campaign and a Lovie Award. Across Mogul Mowgli and The Long Goodbye Ahmed has also been shortlisted for 8 BIFA Awards, a Critics Choice Awards nominated and won Best Narrative Short at South London Film Festival.
The Long Goodbye Livestream Edition is available to watch at mif.co.uk from 28 January to 1 March and tickets are priced on a pay-what-you-feel basis at £5, £10, £15 or £20.
