The season includes with one of the first Black representations on British screens through the work of actor Earl Cameron; work by the Black Film Workshop movement with the Second Sight Film tour and finally some emerging filmmakers who are reshaping a new image of the Black experience at this year’s Derby Film Festival.

 

Starting off the season, and especially timed for Black History Month, Remembering Earl Cameron includes two ground-breaking film, both directed by Basil Dearden, starring the late Bermuda actor Earl Cameron, who died earlier this year. Cameron broke the colour bar and contributed to the first black representation on the British screen.

 

Pool Of London follows two sailors Dan Macdonald and Cameron’s Johnny Lambert as they become involved in a diamond Heist in 1950’s London Docklands. Pool Of London (PG) screens in QUAD from 19th to 22nd October.

 

Sapphire highlights the local tensions and hostility towards West Indian immigrants after the murder of a young woman named Sapphire in London’s Hampstead Heath area. Earl Camron plays Sapphire’s brother Dr. Robbins, a middle class, well-educated doctor, who comes to London eight years later to find out the fate of his sister. In contrast to Pool Of London, Sapphire brings racial identity and stereotypes to the forefront. Sapphire (PG) screens in QUAD from 24th to 27th October.

Second Sight explores the legacy, methods, aesthetics and histories of the UK’s Black Film Workshop Movement, presented as part of a national 2020 film tour from the Independent Cinema Office in association with LUX. Against a backdrop of divisive national politics and civil unrest of 1980’s Britain, a series of radical filmmaking collectives sprung up such as the Ceddo and Sanoka Film and Video workshops.

 

Dreaming Rivers comes from the Sankofa Film and Video, set up in 1983 and covering politics, gender, sexuality and Black British history. Dreaming Rivers illustrates the spirit of modern families touched by the experience of migration, the film weaves together the ambition-fuelled dreams and memories of Caribbean-born Miss T and her family.

 

Omega Rising Women Of Rastafari, a ground-breaking documentary, was the first film to explore and challenge myths and stereotypes about the Rastafarian movement and give voice to women of Rastafari, who speak for themselves about their relationship to the movement and its development. Dreaming Rivers & Omega Rising Women Of Rastafari (PG) can be seen at QUAD on Friday 6th November & Monday 9th November.