WINDRUSH: SIM T
Seventy Years of Black British
o commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the African and Caribbean presence in post-war Britain, STEPHEN BOURNE, author of the award-winning Black in the British Frame – The Black Experience in British Film & Television (2001), lists his personal “bests” from popular British film and television drama since 1948. All images are courtesy of Stephen Bourne’s private collection.
BEST FILM: PRESSURE (1975)
In Pressure the Trinidadian director Horace Ove movingly portrayed the reality of being a black youth in Britain in the 1970s. Horace Ove told the journal Film (BFFS) in August 1978: “I didn’t make the film sitting in my room: I went out with Samuel Selvon and researched it. I was aware of the political situation. I know what’s going down. So, when it was made, and people started saying, ‘That’s not true,’ I knew that either they didn’t know what they were talking about, or they didn’t want to admit to things. Pressure has had a lot of pressure. It’s a touchy film, about something that’s happening here.” Honourable mentions: Ten Bob in Winter (Lloyd Reckord, 1963) Jemima and Johnny (Lionel Ngakane, 1966) Burning an Illusion (Menelik Shabazz, 1981) The Passion of Remembrance (Sankofa, 1986) Playing Away (Horace Ove, 1986) Dreaming Rivers (Martina Attille, 1988) Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julien, 1991) Who Needs a Heart (John Akomfrah, 1991) We the Ragamuffin (Julian Henriques, 1992) Flight of the Swan (Ngozi Onwurah, 1992) Bullet Boy (Saul Dibb, 2004) Kidulthood trilogy: Kidulthood, Adulthood & Brotherhood, (Menhaj Huda & Noel Clarke, 2006-16) Gone Too Far! (Destiny Ekaragha, 2013) A United Kingdom (Amma Asante, 2016).
BEST FILM ACTOR: NORMAN BEATON (BLACK JOY, 1977 & PLAYING AWAY, 1986)
In Black and White in Colour – Black People in British Television Since 1936 (BFI, 1992), Norman Beaton says: “My own view is that what
74 BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2018
you’ve seen me in are the only roles that are available for black men in this country, and they don’t really reflect our views, our understanding of life, our intelligence, or where we are coming from. In that respect, I would say that Caryl Phillips’s scenario for Playing Away did get around that particular hurdle. It lived up to nearly all the expectations that black people ought to be living up to…what I find difficult to come to terms with is the absence of a heroic figure like Paul Robeson in all the work I’ve done… There is no writer writing on that scale, or in those grand, magnificent terms for film or television about a black figure who we all admire or aspire to be like.” Honourable mentions: Earl Cameron (Pool of London, 1951) Johnny Sekka (Flame in the Streets,
1961) Paul Danquah (A Taste of Honey, 1961) Paul J. Medford (Black Joy, 1977) Brinsley Forde (Babylon, 1980) Victor Romero Evans (Burning an Illusion, 1981) Jaye Davidson (The Crying Game, 1992) Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, 2002 & Kinky Boots, 2005) Ashley Walters (Bullet Boy, 2004) Noel Clarke (Kidulthood trilogy, 2006-16) John Boyega (Attack the Block, 2011) David Oyelowo (A United Kingdom, 2016).
BEST FILM ACTRESS: CASSIE MCFARLANE (BURNING AN ILLUSION, 1981)
Outside the ‘mainstream’, in the critically acclaimed Burning an Illusion, writer/director Menelik Shabazz successfully articulated the black British experience through the events in a young woman’s life. In February 1983 the film’s leading actress Cassie McFarlane told Staunch magazine:“The responsibility that the black writer has to the black actor or actress is the same one that he or she has to the community (the black audience). He or she has to be able to reflect the truth. With the film Burning an Illusion we all developed together. We spent a lot of time just talking and reasoning about the roles. I feel that the black actor/actress and the black writer have to develop together.” Honourable mentions: Shope Shodeinde (The Sailor’s Return, 1978) Anni Domingo (The Passion of Remembrance, 1986) Cathy Tyson (Mona Lisa, 1986) Corinne Skinner-Carter
