Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

When I was 15 I saw an advert in the Voice newspaper for a week long film and video course for young black people.

You had to apply and even attend an interview to be accepted on to the course, held during the Easter holidays.

I applied and was successful.

Every day a different person would come and teach us the basics of film production. I didn’t realize it then but each one of them was a legend of black British cinema

Menelik Shabazz, the director of the seminal film “Burning an Illusion”, taught about a "directors eye". Glenn Ujebe Masokoane, who directed “We Are The Elephant”, one of the best films ever made about the struggle against apartheid by South African students, taught us how to write commentary for documentaries. Denis Davis who later went on to direct “Omega Rising – Women In Rastafari” taught us how to use a camera – and the fact that the first camera person I ever met was a woman had a lasting effect on me on how I viewed the profession and breaking down stereotypes before they are even formed.

On the last day of the course, when we were cutting our self-shot little films, Denis Davis approached me and asked me if I would like to spend the summer helping the Ceddo Film Collective work on their new film “Time and Judgement”. I would only be making coffee and at best syncing rushes but in my spare time I could mess around on their VT tape editing machines.

It ended up being a summer that would change my life. It gave me a love for film and shaped my career to this day.

I tell this story because I recognize that I owe these people a massive debt.

I am not describing the normal narrative that you often hear of the mentor who inspires you and guides you to greatness – a la “Dead Poets Society”. I am talking about debt far more important and so large that I will never be able to repay it.

Every black person working in TV and film today owes these people, and others  like them, a debt. These men and women paved the way to make everything we do possible. They were role-models, they were mould-breakers, diversity champions and revolutionaries.

All our careers are in some form or other, whether we know it or not, built on the barriers they broke down and the paths they cleared.

They are the giants whose shoulders we all stand on.

A few days ago I started a Twitter thread where I named some of these “giants” and asked other people to add to the list naming the people who built the foundation for Black and Asian people in UK film and TV.

The response was overwhelming, educational and slightly emotional.

So these names are not lost I have decided to create a wiki-document: 

"BAME FILM AND TV GIANTS"

Anyone can access the document and update it - in the spirit of BAME people in TV and film this must be a team effort. You can edit the existing entries and add "giants” you feel are missing. I hope the page will eventually be hosted by a more established organization so it can get as wide an audience as possible.
 

But for now read about some of the greats of British Asian and Minority Ethnic film and television.

Enjoy