Watch Steve McQueen’s first of a series of Films ‘Small Axe’ now showing on BBC iPlayer. Superb, powerful and timely film, the first film is ‘Mangrove’.
’Fifty years ago, on 9 August 1970, 150 protestors marched against police harassment in Notting Hill. This is the true story of the Mangrove 9, a group of Black activists who were arrested for leading the protest and who changed British history by taking a stand against racial discrimination.’
The second film ‘Lovers Rock’ tells a fictional story of young love at a blues party in 1980. The film is an ode to the romantic reggae genre called lovers rock, and to the black youth who found freedom and love in its sound at London house parties, at a time when they were unwelcome in white nightclubs.
The third film 'Red, White and Blue' starring John Boyega airs Sunday 29th November at 9pm.
There’s more about Steve McQueen including his other films and exhibitions on this Poool page
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Small Axe Q&A - BFI London Film Festival
Steve McQueen talks to BFI London Film Festival programmer Tega Okiti about Mangrove and Lovers Rock
More Q&A and talks about Small Axe from New York Film Festival
New York Film Festival hosted this talk, below, about The Making of Small Axe, ‘In this lively conversation with NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim , McQueen and his collaborators—including co-writers Courttia Newland and Alastair Siddons, cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, and actors Shaun Parkes and Letitia Wright—dug into the making of this sprawling project and the artistic and political ambitions that have shaped it.’
At around 17m 10s in talk above Steve McQueen talks about the ‘Silly Games’ acapella sequence in Lovers Rock.
