Declaration of Independence

Dear Black People, Kedu! (Hi!)

Let me introduce myself properly…my name is Priscilla Ikonnaya Igwe. I am a child of God, descended from the Igbo tribe and a Sickle Cell Warrior. I’m blessed to have my original last name and it means ‘king’ so don’t be surprised with where I’m going with this as I need you to understand your lineage and claim your sovereignty too!

Abeg, once you do, you will know that you belong. Once you do, you may never need to doubt yourself again in this hostile environment. Once you do, you will see Africa as home, exult in all its riches and finally tell all its stories under the sun.

While we are still here though, we shall work with our friends using TNB XPO as a platform to harvest our talent, fully exploit it for our own gain and export it to our global family around the world. These three days, in person and online, will allow us to do that. We have been commodified long enough so let’s gather and become the solution to our own problems. Let’s convene and put our hand in our own pockets so that we don’t rely on handouts with advice on commissioning from Pitch’n’Mix and investment from Lion’s Den. We shall do business and find jobs in our Blackmarket and Recruitment Fair in association with the Production Finance Market, Equal Access Network and Creative Skills Academy facilitated by Film London.

Get ahead of the game of upcoming titles for your audiences with BlackTrack and peep the talent of the future with showcases and insight from FLAMIN Animations, BFI Network, BFI Doc Society Fund, NFTS and Warner Bros. Discovery. The world is our oyster as we go online to discuss coproduction deals with territories where we are the majority and the potential is limitless. We shall swing doors wide open so you can walk on through with your chest. We serve so that you get what you deserve.

This second iteration of TNB XPO is the base for all of that. As we take over Rich Mix, it will become our home away from home. Our ‘Wakanda’ dare I say, and we shall hold court with the industry as they come to tell us about their equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in keynote speeches and panels to enable us to be fully realised participants in a workplace that has historically benefitted from our forced labour. Here is where we challenge, criticise, cry about the hurt that we have been through. Only then can we heal from our trauma collectively. We all make mistakes but we must learn from each other quickly because the experience for many Black people is that with one strike you’re out!

Hence, this is all for nought if we don’t help ourselves. This is not for everyone but we want to reach the ‘Black sheep’ amongst us (and not the crabs clawing around in the proverbial bucket) that refuse to pull up the drawbridge rather put down ladders instead. If you truly believe that there is enough for everyone then come and take your seat at our table.

As we mark our 10th anniversary and move into a new chapter, we are declaring ourselves an institution.

In order to succeed we are ‘raising an army’ so sign up to our membership through our website. It’s free, for us and by us, with support from ‘Black friendly’ institutions that we have given our stamp of approval.

In exchange, your responsibility is to bring your talent, ideas, skills and most importantly your joy, as we move away from ‘divide and conquer’ by the coloniser and unite to ‘prosper and thrive’. However, we need you to share and care about your community as we make a pact to each one, reach one, teach one.

It is certainly all quiet on the western front when it comes to the battle for change in the UK film industry so that is why we mobilise ourselves and our allies in order to fight the good fight. Yes, I’m using a lot of military metaphors because we are in a war for hearts and minds. The Woman King and Black Panther are only the beginning of depicting how powerful we are.

So we shall seize this moment as we form an allied attack on any forces that come against progress. We have plenty of work to do and we need your help to get there. So welcome to ‘Xpose’, our new publication that documents TNB XPO and charts the journey that will become our legacy. Alongside this event, it will expose the industry for the good and the bad, as we counsel not cancel and strive to screen to be seen.

Abi?

Together we rise!

Priscilla Ikonnaya Igwe CEO and Founder The New Black Film Collective