Paradox J

It's a film which sticks up for an era that has long been painted as dusty, desiccated, and antique in an irretrievable way. Even the most famous films about the silent era – Singin' in the Rain (1952), for example, which Babylon is in constant, often literal dialogue with – trade in these same hoary cliches about how embarrassingly protean and vulgar the period was, making fun of the silent-era style of "stagey" acting in a way that would invariably come to define the stereotypes about that time.

Babylon does imagine real figures of the motion picture industry in some cases: the powerful mogul William Randolph Hearst, for example, (most famously the inspiration for Citizen Kane) or MGM "boy wonder" producer Irving Thalberg, portrayed by Max Minghella (Thalberg was revered for being unusually creative and gentle for a mogul, though in truth had just a big a mean streak as any other).

The exhibition begins with the independence era in Africa, and takes viewers on a journey from there up to today and the fashion currently emerging from the continent. Contemporary pieces include works by the Nigerian label Orange Culture – that challenge the ideas of "masculine clothes" – as well as bespoke outfits.

"We start in the independence era because, for many, it epitomises pride in being black and African," says Checinska. The period of decolonisation ignited a new sense of excitement in artists of many countries across Africa. It was a time of African cultural renaissance, with many using their medium to explore their relationship with their country. "Naturally, people were embracing the opportunity to form their own identity. They felt the freedom to express themselves without being under colonial eye," says David Hill, owner of West London photography space David Hill Gallery.

"At every step, people on Sark are allowed to choose how we live," Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Guille MBE told me. Guille was born on Sark during the island's German occupation during World War Two in 1942, left when he was 15 to join the Royal Navy, then returned upon retirement in 1997. "As far as we can, we live a traditional, rural life. We have a dairy, sheep farms, market gardens. And life does change, but it is changing at the pace we want it to. It's our island and we run it the way we want it to be run."

Chief among Sark's curiosities is that it has its own parliament, exchequer and set of laws and taxes. The UK government is still responsible for defence and international relations here, but the semi-autonomous island with its own United Nations country code (680) is a defiant outlier – it was the last feudal state in Europe, only dismantling its almost 450-year-old feudal system of hereditary government to allow for better democratic representation of its 500 residents in 2008.