Handsworth Songs

Handsworth Songs (1986)

The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.

Date of release
1986-05-08
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (11)
Runtime
1h 1m
Genres
Documentary
Director
John Akomfrah

Casting

Interesting facts

Handsworth Songs is a 1986 British documentary film directed by John Akomfrah and produced by Lina Gopaul. It was filmed during the 1985 riots in Handsworth and London. The production company was the Black Audio Film Collective, who also wrote the screenplay. With cinematography by Sebastian Shah and music by Trevor Mathison, there were voice-overs by Pervais Khan, Meera Syal, Yvonne Weekes, Sachkhand Nanak Dham and Mr. McClean.

Background

Handsworth Songs was commissioned by Channel 4 for their series Britain: The Lie of the Land and won seven prizes internationally, including the John Grierson Award for Best Documentary (BFI). The production company used their now renowned methods of intermixing newsreel, still photos and a sound mosaic, creating an experimental multi-layered narrative.

In the early 1980s Britain experienced economic decline and deep recession, which caused mass unemployment and rising house prices and stock market. This also led to racial tension. Riots also occurred in Brixton in 1981 and Handsworth in 1981.

The film looks at how people from the Caribbean and South Asia came to Britain after World War II, hoping for a better life. These early immigrants worked hard to build new lives, but often faced racism and unfair treatment. The film shows how their memories—both hopeful and painful—still affect younger generations.

The Black Audio Film Collective was founded in 1982 by seven young Black British artists and thinkers: John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul, Reece Auguiste, Trevor Mathieson, Edward George, Avril Johnson, and Claire Joseph. In 1983 the Black Audio Film Collective came together to encourage a Black film culture within film and video, specifically looking at questions of Black representation, including colonial imagery and anti-racist/sexist film material.

In an interview with Paul Gilroy and Jim Pines, the Black Audio Film Collective define the specific audience for their films as an imaginary construction, films made for Diasporic peoples, rather than simply Black people. This is almost a marketing strategy to help define where they might be shown. It analyses the limits of definition of an audience.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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