Tracking: Black British Films Matter

BLACK BRITISH FILMS

MATTER

In 2006, Joss Whedon – director of the now iconic superhero film The Avengers (2012), that first ground-breaking gettogether of “earth’s mightiest heroes” (who, in the opinion of this writer, certainly got a lot “mightier” in 2018 thanks to Ryan Coogler, but, perhaps with just a hint of joyfully proud bias, I digress) – famously gave an answer to a question at an event for the feminist organisation Equality Now. Whedon has been consistently praised for embedding empowered female characters throughout his work… but also, time and time again, interrogated. “Why do you write these strong female characters?” he recalls as a recurring question posed to him by interviewers. Whedon’s celebrated final answer: “because you’re still asking me that question.” I find myself, as a Black British filmmaker, writing a piece about ‘why Black British films matter’, and this far in, it’s proving to be quite a daunting task. Mostly because of that single word, which has

Babymother somehow managed to split, at times it seems, the world in half. Because here in Britain, we too are exhaustingly having to prove, that our lives matter. Nothing else. They just matter. So far, it’s been a challenge for all of us. One thing we can do is make films. The surprising joy of being a Black single parent in Babymother (1998) raising two children with the help of her own people whilst still being able to shake a hip. The trauma and bile and sadly logical hatred we felt in the burning summer of 2011 and then again remembered in The Hard Stop (2015).

Now imagine what we as Black filmmakers can make matter as we begin, or continue, our careers during this strange and scary time. And it is strange and scary. How do you, frankly, make truth and beauty out of a man being choked to death by a policeman through the lens of cinema? How do you, in the words of Ingmar Bergman, “make lilies grow out of the arsehole of a carcass?”

The answer is simple. If you’re a young Black British filmmaker like me, you – following the words and advice of Spike Lee – “bust your ass”. Because now is the time to prove, on the screen, that our lives matter. Contrary to what the strange supporters of Churchill’s statue will have you believe, and as that man himself once said: “your country needs you.” Why? Because we’re still being asked that question. Jaden Stone n

WINNER sundance Grand Jury Prize

“Alfre Woodard is brilliant. Her performance will leave audiences awestruck.” IndieWire

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