Bristol Bus Boycott Documentary Report

University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Critical Evaluation BA (Hons) Media Practice UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality Module Leader: Alistair Oldham Student Name: Hiu Tung Karen Law Student ID: 11041177

12 January 2012

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Content Page

Research on Bristol Bus Boycott-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­3

Research on documentary genre (Film review)-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­4

Research on film editing-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­5

Research on multi-­platform -­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­7

Ethics and representation-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­10

Character and Narrative structure-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­11

Production Process and Actual product-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­12

Bibliography-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­14

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

After the presentation on early November, our group started to arrange interviews with our character, Joyce, the faster we could arrange an interview, the longer time we could use to filter out useful information in the interviews.

At the same time, I tried to investigate more from the research.

Research on Bristol Bus Boycott

I had a look back at the booklet I got from the Bristol Record Office. It introduces many sources about the history, archives and collections of African-­‐Caribbean. I tried to filter some information that might be useful for this project. I thought I might find some other contributors for this project.

Clive Smith Collection As I mentioned in the individual research, Clive is a Jamaican filmmaker in Bristol. He should know the situations of Jamaicans in Bristol very much. So I tried to get contact with him. But the collection does not mention a lot about what he’s doing now. Thus I had no idea of how to find him.

Arawak Connection This is a magazine produced by Bristol West Indian Parents and Friends Association.

The members participated in the Bristol Bus Boycott. Today members meet at St. Werburgh’s Community Centre. I thought of visiting them and tried to find any other contributors among them. But later on our group could meet Madge Dresser for the interview. I think this is actually better as the video has Joyce as a participant in the Bristol Bus Boycott and Madge as a professor in History. Joyce can talk about more about her personal feelings in the event while Madge can describe more about the general situations of the event.

Living Archives – One City Project by Photographers Paul Bullivant ad Tony Gill I know that the video will need a lot for archives as supporting materials to tell the story. I thought this project might help. I sent an email to Paul, it is good that he replied,

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

but he said the photographs are contemporary. They are not archives actually. So I lost this clue and our group tried to find other ways to solve this problem.

Research on documentary genre (Film review)

Biggie and Tupac Directed by Nick Broomfield

Is framing needed in documentaries? It’s always my question as things are quite hard to be controlled in documentaries. I don’t think the framing in this film is absolutely fascinating. Most of the shootings are observational. The cameraman always follows the director Nick to everywhere who does interviews with the people related to the cases.

The two cases are far more complicated than I thought. There are so many people involved, but it’s good that there are archives and photos that help to tell the story.

It’s not easy to find those people involved. Like those police officers and some prisoners, I always think it’s hard to get access to these people, as things will become more sensitive and controversial when these people are on screen. I read an essay written by Roger Ebert on Jan 10, 2003. He said actually when they went to California prison to visit Suge Knight, Broomfield’s photographer was so fearsome that he refused to go inside, and Broomfield had to hire a freelancer. But still the freelance was so nervous that he pointed the camera to the sky at a moment. I finally understand why the camera is so shaky at the time when they were trying to get into the prison.

Even the style of this film looks like a live process that the director and the cameraman just walk around in the city finding people to do interviews. I’m sure they did a detailed preparation of where the people are, what they are doing. Or they may contact them once or twice for the shooting.

In the editing, I thought Broomfield made an assumption that Shakur and Biggie’s deaths are related. At the beginning the film talks about the relationships between

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Shakur and Biggie, from how good friends they were to the arguments they had and finally split up. It seems Biggie was the main lead of causing Skakur’s death. But later on in the film, it starts to bring out the co-­‐founder of Death Row Records, Suge Knight, to the case. When I watched the film, I still don’t understand why Suge became the suspects of Skakur’s murderer. But then in the essay I read, I found out the reason is that the executve owed Skakur unpaid royalties and so he planned to jump to another record label.

I see a few acts in this film. From the relationship between Skakur and Biggie, the involvement of Death Row records to the involvement of LAPD. LAPD was suspected that the off-­‐duty officers were the hitters in the shooting. Things become more and more complicated as the film reveals more facts in the two cases. Broomfield had many attempts by visiting the people that were close to the two people, like close friends, bodyguards, ex-­‐girlfriends, parent, former police officers…etc.

Even though there are still questions about the cases. Did LAPD really involved in shooting? Who actually killed Skakur and Biggie? What were the reasons of killing them? Were there any arguments between Skakur and Biggie before they died?

It’s still a good attempt to film something really controversial. Compared to this film, I think our video is in ‘safety mode’. Our video is about racist issues in Bristol, if we can actually go deeper into how racism really affects the relationships between white and black people and the development of the society, the video will be more exciting.

However, we are just students, it’s not easy to deal with these controversial issues.

Access is a problem as well. We do not know how we can get the access to those private black communities. That’s reality. If people don’t think your project can benefit them, they may just ignore it.

Research on film editing

To me, editing is always an abstract thing. People always say that editing is choreography. Editors must have strong senses of timing and pacing, know how to

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

create a rhythm, tension and release for the film. So how can I learn to build up that sense? Many would say that’s your experience in editing. This is just so board. Karen Pearlman wrote a book about shaping the film edit. I agreed with Pearlman that most editors would say, “It’s intuitive”. But she brings out some points about building up a good expertise on editing, like watching more films, doing detailed research to have a thorough understanding of the material and story and learning to see the potential of movements and moments before they are shaped. To be short, that means editors need time to develop his/her experience. Even if we talk about creativity, combining different images, sounds and movements can create new and coherent meanings, practices seem to be the most important in training editors.

Pearlman also mentions that music is very important in films, she said “The composer makes up the music and its rhythms, whereas an editor doesn’t exactly makes up anything up.” I agree that music is important, but is it more important than editing? I think music can help create emotions, enhance the rhythm created by editing.

Even though editing looks like choreography, but the main difference is choreographers often work with abstract movements, but editors always work with naturalistic movements. And they have to maintain the continuity of movements. Pearlman mentions some technical words like pulse that makes up rhythm of the film. I believe it’s just like a human body, the speed of pulse can affect the whole body system. The rhythm of the film affects audience’s emotions, I think this relates to storytelling. Another one is movement phrases. In the book she says, “…are compositions of movement into perceptible and intentionally formed rhythmically expressive sequences.” I believe she’s talking about how to shape movements, how to make them smooth enough that audience doesn’t notice there is editing in it.

Pearlman mentions many theories of editing, like how to build up good sense of timing and pacing, how to create physical and emotional rhythm. They are not a recipe that I can follow in every editing of films.

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Research on multi-­platform

After the discussion with Joyce, I believe Joyce’s decisions and changes made in order to archive a better life are worth to be shared. And the most possible focus for video is on Bristol Bus Boycott. I don’t think the video would look good if the focus on racism, the video would be very boring on screen as it is hard to find suitable archives to tell the story. Audio piece can use more sound effects to cover the disadvantage of lacking visual archives.

Our group discussed the focuses on different strands. Based on the ideas we had, I found some information in different strands.

In video piece: A book called Bristol ethic minorities and the city 1000-­‐2001 talks about the ethics of African-­‐Caribbeans during 1948-­‐1990, mentions the situations of African-­‐Caribbeans at 1960s-­‐1970s from immigration, settlement, employment, housing and policing.

Joyce said her parents came earlier to Britain, as they had to work and found a house, so their children could come over later on to live with them. I actually found a paragraph explaining why migrants would like to go Bristol instead of other cities in the UK (p.158).

“…it was regarded ‘as a city of diverse industries and thus good chances of employment’ and, more controversially, that it had ‘a reputation of little or no feeling of racial intolerance’”

Joyce mentioned the poor housing at that time. I have found some information about this (p.160):

“Few British Landlords outside the inner city were prepared to rent accommodation to Caribbean migrants. Discrimination in private sector housing was often compounded by local authority policy.”

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

I finally understand why the settlers had little options on housing. That’s why Joyce said the limited housing options caused overcrowding in the flats.

Joyce and Madge (Reader in History at the University of the West of England) mentioned about the employment of Caribbean migrants were not very well. The book says (p.163):

“Social scientists have debated the extent to which this predominance of Caribbean workers in low-­‐skill, low-­‐paid employment was due to discrimination or to the lower level of skills training then available in the Caribbean.”

Furthermore, Bristol experienced an economic recession during early 1960s. No wonder the white workers feared they would lose their jobs to cheap foreign labour.

This was the main reason that caused the serious racial discrimination on black migrants. This affect the activists in the bus boycott at that time to arrange a march to fight against racial discrimination.

This book becomes the main reference when I edited the video. The facts mentioned in the book help to develop a storyline for Joyce.

In audio piece: The main focus is on racism in Bristol or in UK. It would be good to hear more archives about the arguments and opinions on racism at that time. Or there are sociologists who can give more objective views on racism. It may be more informative but it can help to let audience have a general idea of what racism is, what the causes of racism are, what affects people’s thoughts, etc.

Tariq Ali is a British Pakistani activist. He has been a leading figure of the international left since the 60s. He is also a member of the editorial committee of the journal New Left Review. I found a journal written in 1992 by Winston James. It talks about a lot about

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

the Caribbean experience on migration, racism and identity in Britain. I read from p.23-­‐ 35, in p.28 it says:

“The sentiments of a maturing Pan-­‐African consciousness are discernible: ‘I think people lose respect for us when we let them think we want to be black Englishmen.”

I found some archives on JISC MediaHub of Tariq Ali having speeches that are related to racism or discrimination. He is definitely an activist during 60s and 70s on racial discrimination.

In interactive piece: I watched an interview of Xiao Qiang on BBC website. This interview talks about the usage and freedom of Internet in China. To those who may not know, until now, China has never had an independent media under the Chinese Communist Party rule. One example I know is people can’t get access to some social network websites like Facebook. I think it’s properly because the government is afraid of anti-­‐communists would spread any messages that are unfavorable to the government. There are many restrictions on speech in China.

Internet does help reveal the reality and spread different messages. Xiao Qiang mentions in the interview that the Chinese artist Ai WeiWei, who is a blogger, started a project compiling all the names of the dead children in China's Szechwan earthquake in 2008 and put all these on blogs. His action inspired hundreds of volunteers that actually went to the earthquake region, did an investigation and compiling those children names on their blogs. Later on there are more and more volunteers keep putting information on line, eventually this action aroused national attention. The reason why Ai WeiWei had to list out the children names is because of the bad constructions of the school buildings by the local government. When it came to an enormous earthquake, the buildings couldn’t do anything even a little protection to the school kids. That became a systematic problem of the local government. Ai WeiWei tried to use Internet to arouse

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

the public attention. I can see how online activism and media affects the media even the Chinese official media can’t do it.

I think it is similar if we put documentaries online. Generally, documentaries are films that can spread messages and reveal the underlying facts. I don’t think our video is so powerful that can arouse people’s attention, but just take it as an example. Our video mentions racism in the 50s and 60s. If we put the video online, people especially youngsters in Bristol may understand more about their city’s history. We may film a documentary specifically on racism, discussing racism in different areas, cities, countries or even in the world. Then it becomes a big issue. Internet is a good place to have discussions, as people from all over the world can discuss on the film and share their own views.

Ethics and representation

Racism affects people’s thoughts and thus they do some actions to resist foreign forces.

When I was filming this documentary, I thought of many questions. Why racism exists?

Why white people discriminate black people but not vice versa? What causes racism? It seems white people don’t immigrate to black people countries, why they don’t do so?

Maybe some white people do so, but not many of them. White people always think they are better than black people. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t say that all white people think in that way, but some do think so. Will black people discriminate white people in black people countries? What about racism in other countries like in China and Hong Kong?

Joyce is a Jamaican. Some people may think she may say something against white people. Of course she is talking about the facts. I tried to find as many archives as I could to present the real situations and the truth. The video has Madge Dresser as well, who gives information that the video has a fact to base on. I hope the combination of these materials and interviews can make the video be more all-­‐round and objective on discussing racism.

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Can racism be taught in education? I read an article about teaching black youngsters about the racism in 1980s. The writer mentioned is a black author who came to the school to have talks with the school kids. He said life in 1980s was tough as he and his friends would get stopped by police five times per day on average. He didn’t say that is a kind of racism, but the kids believe that the police were racist. But when the author asked how many times per week were they stopped, only one out of thirty kids had been stopped once.

That’s true that racism still exists, but is the situation the same as 1980s? I believe this is worth discussed between the teachers and school kids. While the school kids are growing up and getting mature, it will be good to start teaching them different social issues, in order to prepare themselves to adapt the society in easier ways.

Character and Narrative structure

To me, Joyce herself has so many stories that are worth to be shared. She joined the bus boycott when she was a twelve year-­‐old school kid, she grew up in Bristol, she studied in UWE, she worked as a youth worker and social worker no matter she was suffering racism at that time. Even though she had quite a lot of restrictions on how we share her stories and experience, we made an agreement for the filming.

Base on Joyce’s worries and the materials we’ve got, our group thought of the three acts, early life, Bristol Bus Boycott and life after bus boycott. The video has archives as the main visual materials to illustrate the scenes of what happened to Joyce and to help tell the story.

Meanwhile, the video should have some shots on Joyce nowadays. She is retired, so we just film her doing things like visiting old places, walking in the parks or feeding birds.

However, when I finished the very first draft of the video, I had already noticed the lack of footage. But the video is all about Joyce’s past, even Joyce went back to old places

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

where she had trainings and went to work, she doesn’t have anything to do. So I knew that the video is really based on the archives. I did short motion graphics on the newspaper cuttings about the bus boycott. I would like to use them as the transition videos between the acts.

Production Process and Actual product

We did get some minor problems during the filming, like our possible shooting places were really limited because of Joyce’s restrictions, and later on the filming she said she hurt her leg accidentally, so we must stopped the shooting for a week. But other than that, we could manage to get the shots we wanted.

The Bristol history and Joyce’s story do help bring some depth to the video, I believe this is what we call the production value, even though the direction of the video is not the ideal one.

If our project is talking about focusing on one character, it seems our video is not focusing enough on our character. The majority of the video talks about the earlier conditions of Jamaicans in Bristol and bus boycott. Even the video talks about the studies and work life of Joyce after bus boycott, the content Joyce talked about is not enough to reveal the characteristics and personalities of her. I do not think audience can know Joyce very much only through this video, since she is more willing to reveal or describe facts more than her personal feelings. Moreover, the video includes the UWE professor Madge Dresser, who makes the video even more informative. Though I tried to make a balance between bus boycott and Joyce, the video still looks like a history educational programme on BBC. Fortunately, Joe’s friend can compose the music for the video, which helps bring dramatic atmosphere to the video.

The copyright issue is always the thing I concern as well. It is not easy finding those archives. It would out of a student project’s budget if we bought archives from the

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

authorized companies. It was always a struggling question in this project. The problem we often faced was that we needed them, but the access to the materials would be hard.

I think our group didn’t have a big problem on teamwork. Sometimes we did have communication problems, because the first language of many of us is not English. I am prepared for that, I don’t really think that cause a serious problem. If we want to do it, we can still achieve our aims.

After this project, I do want to explore more in documentaries, even my final year project I did in my previous university in Hong Kong last year is a documentary. Of course, this project’s attempt, depth and style are better than my previous one.

Sometimes I’m thinking about if I can find any more interesting topics and start a little documentary project on my own. This idea seems board and fake, but while I am doing my studies, I will look for any fascinating topics around Bristol.

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Bibliography

Madge Dresser and Peter Fleming , Bristol ethic minorities and the city 1000-­2001, Phillimore & Co.Ltd, 2007, Chapter 12, pp.157-­‐176

Winston James, Migration, Racism and Identity: The Caribbean Experience in Britain, New Left Review I/193, May-­‐June 1992, pp. 23-­‐35

Karen Pearlman , Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit, Focal Press, 2009

Bristol Black Archives Partnership, A Guide to African-­Caribbean Sources in Bristol’s Museums, Galleries and Archives (an online booklet)

Nick Broomfield (Director). Biggie and Tupac. Roxy Releasing and Lions Gate Entertainment, 2002

Bristol Archives Records http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/index.html# [Accessed 11 Nov 2011]

BBC – Bristol Bus Boycott http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/bristol-­‐bus-­‐boycott-­‐1963/7682.html [Accessed 11 Nov 2011]

Tariq Ali Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali [Accessed 5 Dec 2011]

Tariq Ali at Black Youth Conference http://jiscmediahub.ac.uk/record/display/039-­‐00046992 [Accessed 8 Dec 2011]

UK: Black Youth Conference Meets in Birmingham http://jiscmediahub.ac.uk/record/display/043-­‐00036274 [Accessed 8 Dec 2011]

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

BBC 3D Documentary Explorer http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/3dexplorer_start.shtml [Accessed 20 Dec 2011]

New Left Review Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left_Review [Accessed 21 Dec 2011]

New Left Review http://www.newleftreview.org/ [Accessed 21 Dec 2011]

Biggie and Tupac Film Review by Roger Ebert http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030110/REVIEWS/301100302/1023 [Accessed 23 Dec 2011]

Rushes Sequences -­‐ Xiao Qiang interview -­‐ USA (Video) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digitalrevolution/2009/11/rushes-­‐sequences-­‐xiao-­‐qiang-­‐in.shtml [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

Black children think the police are racist. We must teach them about the 1980s http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/katharinebirbalsingh/100100316/black-­‐children-­‐think-­‐the-­‐police-­‐ are-­‐racist-­‐we-­‐must-­‐teach-­‐them-­‐about-­‐the-­‐1980s/ [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

Jamaican schoolboys fear ‘gay’ label for academic Jamaican teacher's findings are backed but problem seen as much deeper by Commissiong Raymond Hainey, Senior Reporter http://bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=270&ArticleID=54922 [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

Education – Black Culture or White Racism?

By Lahan (Blogger) http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2004/07/education-­‐black-­‐culture-­‐or-­‐white.html [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

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University of the West of England UACA7K-­‐40-­‐2 – Representing Reality

Student ID: 11041177

Jamaican teacher wins racial discrimination tribunal after sacking http://swns.com/jamaican-­‐teacher-­‐wins-­‐racial-­‐discrimination-­‐tribunal-­‐after-­‐sacking-­‐111339.html [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

Racism in China Author Unknown http://www.thechinaexpat.com/racism-­‐in-­‐china/ [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

Rushes Sequences -­‐ Xiao Qiang interview -­‐ USA (Video) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digitalrevolution/2009/11/rushes-­‐sequences-­‐xiao-­‐qiang-­‐in.shtml [Accessed 28 Dec 2011]

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