On The Offbeat

On The Offbeat is an experimental documentary punctuated by dance interludes, focusing on the notion of syncopation. Syncopation is a technique used in music, primarily developed by musicians from the African diaspora, to bring rhythm to life by making the accent fall on the offbeat. The film explores the wider sense of syncopation, as a disturbance and subversion of regular patterns - in social movements; in our experience and perception of time; in self organising systems (such as bee communication); and in creative processes in dance (such as Vogue Fem), music, sound art, poetry and cooking. It presents the work of five people from the diasporic and queer community, all based in London. Through interviews they give us different perspectives on what syncopation means in their lived experience, multi-disciplinary practices and research. The film spans multiple historic and contemporary narratives of displacement and resistance, resonating with our current condition of interruption and delay. On The Offbeat is an iridescent journey exploring syncopation as a transformative form of disruption that unsettles normative codes and breathes life back into daily rhythms.