Back in 1970 legendary poet Gil Scott-Heron famously proclaimed that “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” However, it certainly could be argued within the last decade at least an insurgency has been developing in global Afrikan documentary making. Often referred to as “Guerrilla filmmaking,” these types of films are made without major studio backing and covering issues that major studios are rarely interested in. Although not a new phenomenon – as the likes of pioneers like Menelik Shabazz and the Ceddo Film and Video Workshop (e.g. Step Forward Youth, Blood Ah Go Run, Time & Judgement, The People’s Account), access to new technology has meant that high production values can be rendered with relatively few resources or even formal film school training. Another aspect of the new phase is the featuring of an array of community activists and leaders alongside established academics.Typical of this new phase is the 2005 film 500 Years Later directed by Owen ‘Alik Shahadah and written by M. K. Asante, Jr. An expansive account, charting the legacy of enslavement. Two years later Toying Agbetu of the Ligali organization directed the first of his several films – Maafa: Truth 2007 that served as a stinging rebuke to the UK government’s bi-centenary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act campaign (colloquially referred to as “Wilberfarce”). Other notable films in the genre include Rice N’ Peas films’ BANG! BANG! In Da Manor and Gang Wars M. K. Asante, Jr.’s The Black Candle, Longbelly Entertainment Ltd’s Ancestral Voices and As It Grows. One film, released in 2011 that gone on to become a global phenomenon spawning two sequels (with a third planned) is Tariq Nasheed’s Hidden Colours. Dealing with issues like The Untold History Of People Of Aboriginal, Moor, and African Descent, The Triumph of Melanin and The Rules of Racism across the series, the films include contributions from the likes of Dick Gregory, Frances Cress Welsing, Umar Johnson, Joy De Gruy, Tony Browder, Michelle Alexander, Runoko Rashidi, Paul Mooney, KRS
-ONE and Nas. Nasheed will be in London to deliver an exlusive lecture on International Rules of Racism on Sunday 15th March 2015 (http://back2blackempire.com/index.php/events/event/14).
-ONE and Nas. Nasheed will be in London to deliver an exlusive lecture on International Rules of Racism on Sunday 15th March 2015 (http://back2blackempire.com/index.php/events/event/14).So although the last decade has seen a proliferation of Pan-Afrikan diasporean thought and opinion documented in film, it is less clear to the extent that it has influenced, or is influenced by grassroots activism/movements in the way that Blood Ah Go Run for example, fed into the activism of the National Black People’s Day of Action in 1981. Indeed, Menelik Shabazz said of his film “The film was edited in a deliberate newsreel style, a throwback to 2nd World War propaganda films. This was agit-prop filmmaking with no pretence at being impartial. In my mind it was a film for underground circulation in the community.” One may point to Toyin Agbetu’s recent Beauty Is... film and it attendant campaigns around skin bleaching, hair straighteners and promoting natural beauty. On the other hand it has been suggested that in the absence of a viable, vibrant grassroots movement as there was in previous years the vacuum is being filled by these consciousness raising films.
So we ask the question:
What is the impact of the new era of Afrikan-Centred films?
- Is the revolution now being televised?
- Are these films influencing or influenced by the grassroots movement?
- Is there still viable, vibrant grassroots movement?
- Have you seen any of the Hidden Colours films?
- What is your favourite documentary film?
- Do these films play a role in raising consciousness?
Our special guest is:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK. A veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence
Bro. Tariq Nasheed is an author, documentary film producer, media personality, satirist, Internet radio host, relationship expert, and social commentator, focusing on the psychology of dating and African-American social history. In addition to authoring several books on relationships. Bro. Nasheed produced the 2011 documentary film Hidden Colors, on the history of African and aboriginal peoples and its follow-up Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin in 2012. Hidden Colors 3: The Rules of Racism was released in 2014. Recently, Mayor Byron W. Brown of Buffalo New York made a proclamation that declared November 1st 2013, Tariq Nasheed day in the city of Buffalo.
Bro. Menelik Shabazz (Invited) is an Award winning film director, producer, and writer – known as a key pioneer in the development of contemporary black British cinema. His impressive roster of films includes groundbreaking documentaries like Step Forward Youth, Blood Ah Go Run, Time & Judgement, The People’s Account and The Story Of Love Rock and the feature film Burning An Illusion. Between 1998 and 2007 he published Black Filmmaker (bfm)magazine to assist the next generation of filmmakers. The publication was the first of its kind and was distributed in UK nationally, as well as to readers in Europe and North America. Bro. Menelik is currently in production on his next documentary Looking For Love, a film is looking at black male/female relationships in the UK.
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