Nominated v‘Specialist Factual’ BAFTA Television Awards | Nominated ‘Best Documentary Programme’ Broadcast Awards
★★★★★ ‘Candid’ ‘Affecting’ THE GUARDIAN | ★★★★★ ‘Mesmerising, horrifying’ THE TIMES | ★★★★★ ‘A fine documentary’ MAIL ON SUNDAY | ★★★★★ ‘Vital’ ‘Gripping’ FT | ★★★★ ‘Food for thought’ ‘TELEGRAPH | ★★★★ ‘Powerful’ DAILY MAIL | ‘Essential viewing’ Pick of the Day THE SUN | ‘Vivid and righteous’ Critic’s Choice THE SUNDAY TIMES
Knife crime is surging across the UK. As the death toll rises each month, this film is a powerful account of a most deadly year. This film is an intimate and revealing look at one of the biggest challenges facing the country. In 1993 Duwayne Brooks was waiting at a bus stop in Eltham with his friend Stephen Lawrence when they were attacked by a racist gang and Stephen was brutally stabbed to death. Witnessing Stephen’s murder left Duwayne severely traumatised. Still deeply affected 25 years on, he takes viewers on a personal journey into the current wave of knife crime and the impact it is having across the nation. He meets victims’ families and friends as they cope with the aftermath of a loved one being killed and the ensuing fight for justice, he engages with the perpetrators to understand what is making more and more young people turn to knives, and he explores what is being done to stem the violence. Along the way, he revisits his own past, facing up to the trauma that has come to define him.
Black Power: A British Story of Resistance looks at the 60s and 70s through the eyes of the young black people who refused to take racism as a part of the natural order of things in the UK. It shows how the civil rights struggle in America inspired activists to take a stand and features rare archive of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael’s activities in Britain, as well as footage of leading figures in the movement in the UK: Altheia Jones-LeCointe, Darcus Howe and Roy Sawh.
The film describes the different groups in the movement such as R.A.A.S., the British Black Panthers and The Fasimbas, that appeared in cities across the UK at the time. It illustrates how the activism of these groups combined with community and culture helped fuel hope and resilience, and ultimately started Britain on the road to being a more inclusive and diverse society.
The film looks at key moments in the movement’s history such as the Mangrove Nine trial and the Oval Four convictions and examines controversial figures such as Michael X and events such as The Spaghetti House siege.
But at the heart of this documentary is a series of interviews from past activists, many of whom are speaking for the first time about what it was really like to be involved in the British Black Power movement, who bring to life one of the key cultural revolutions in the history of the nation.
Black Power: A British Story of Resistance is produced by Rogan Productions, Lammas Park and Turbine Studios
Featured image by Horace Ove, CBE.
Awards
Nominated
‘Specialist Factual’
BAFTA Television Awards
Nominated
‘Best Documentary Programme’
Broadcast Awards
Credits
Director George Amponsah
Produced by Helen Bart
Executive Producers Steve McQueen, James Rogan, Soleta Rogan, Tracey Scoffield, David Tanner
Executive Producers for BBC Claire Sillery, Emma Loach
Narrated by Daniel Kaluuya
Broadcast Details
This programme was first broadcast on Thursday 25th March 2021 at 9pm on BBC Two. Watch it on BBC iPlayer now.
