Saturday 19 April 1pm-5.30pm
BFI Southbank (near Royal Festival Hall) Belvedere Road SE1
Tube: Waterloo.Admission £5.00 Box office 0207 928 3232 www.bfi.org.uk
When films are powerful and challenge the status quo they are often banned or suppressed. It is not an accident that positive black films are put on TV at 11.20pm or that African cinema releases are never adequately promoted.
Most films on slavery skim over the realities of what Europeans did to force Africans to work for nothing all day long. This film does not. It is so unflinching in its portrayal of European barbarity during slavery that it has effectively been witheld from audiences for 35 years for fear of the reaction it would get .
Made in the aftermath of the US civil rights movement the film puts the 1970's fight for equality into context by using a documentary style to see exactly what life would have been like for enslaved Africans on the plantations of the USA and the legacies of such behaviour on present day society. The film was condemned as racist, ridiculous and unrealistic when it was released but much of the dialogue and events were based on historical letters and documents that are now readily available via the internet or in print.
This film has been screened in a British mainstream cinema only once before and sold out. It will be followed by discussion with historians, academics and community activists. This landmark event is brought to you in collaboration with:
100 Black Men
Pan Afrikan Society LSBU
Images of Black Women Film Festival
Ligali
Black Nine Films
Black Filmmakers Magazine