Black Audio Film Collective, John Akomfrah, Handsworth Songs, 1986, single channel 16mm colour film transferred to video, sound, 58 minutes 33 seconds. © Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery
‘A film essay on race and civil disorder in 1980s Britain and the inner city riots of 1985, Handsworth Songs takes as its point of departure the civil disturbances of September and October 1985 in the Birmingham district of Handsworth and in the urban centres of London. Running throughout the film is the idea that the riots were the outcome of a protracted suppression by British society of black presence. The film portrays civil disorder as an opening onto a secret history of dissatisfaction that is connected to the national drama of industrial decline. Handsworth Songs won Britain’s most prestigious award for Documentaries, the British Film Institute Grierson Award Best Documentary in 1986.’
The film features photography by Vanley Burke and was shot on his bolex camera as discussed in recent guest seminar with us.
The film is a Black Audio Film Collective production. Artists, filmmakers and writers associated with the group include John Akomfrah, Reece Auguiste, Edward George Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, David Lawson, Trevor Mathison .