Filmmaker Ken Fero on Deaths in Police Custody

Joy Gardner

There's a reason why everyone in my neighbourhood in South London knows who Trayvon Martin was.

A few months ago, a local public meeting was held. The posters all featured a photo of Trayvon. No caption, no explanation. But everyone in this area knows that similar things happen here.

I know Trayvon was not killed by the police, but his killing was sanctioned by the courts.

BFI London South Bank recently held a day on deaths in police custody, as part of the African Odysseys ongoing film series.

Filmmaker Ken Fero, director of numerous documentaries including the multi-award-winning Injustice, spoke in the morning and screened clips from his films. In the afternoon, two of those films were screened.

Injustice chronicles the fight for justice of seven families whose members died in police custody. None of the police officers involved in these killings have been prosecuted or disciplined. Six of the families are Black (African Caribbean), the seventh is Irish. An Irishman was gunned down as he walked through Brixton carrying a wooden table leg. The police stated they thought he was armed with a gun.

All of these families are still continuing to fight for justice.

Injustice has never been shown on UK television. When it was first released in 2001, every time it was due to be shown in cinemas, the police would phone the cinema about 15 minutes before the screening was due to start, threatening legal action. They claimed the film “might be libellous”.

Ken Fero, filmmaker

However, as Fero explained at the BFI, the audience inevitably contained someone who owned a business or ran a community centre or another venue. So the audience would decamp down the street, and the film would be screened.

Like a lot of people, I was very keen to see the film, and I saw it in a barbershop in South London. All I can say is, if you haven't seen Injustice, you need to see it.

Fero has made many other films about human rights abuses committed in Britain and other European countries, notably Germany and France. It was, frankly, disturbing to hear him say how many times he has filmed some of the same families. For example, the family of Joy Gardner, a Jamaican citizen who died in police custody in 1993.

Joy Gardner suffocated whilst in police restraints. The press labelled her an illegal immigrant and, as Fero pointed out, ignored the fact that other labels could equally be applied to her. Like “student” and “mother”.

He also said that, between 2001 and 2011, another 1,000 people died in police custody. This is an escalation, as more than 1,000 deaths in police custody had occurred in the previous 30 years.

Fero said he makes these films in order to inspire people and educate them about how to take action. He told me that he doesn't want to continue to make these films but, as I am sure he would agree, it is vital that he does.

And while we are collectively mourning Michael Brown, Eric Garner and all the others, we are aware that these things also happen here.

Please join us for the International Summit on Nonviolence today.

See also: Deaths in Police Custody.

Film Africa: Filming Sensitive Issues

Dancing on the Edge

THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT. 

I had some serious issues with the Filming Sensitive Issues event held at the BFI as part of the recent Film Africa festival.  

I walked in to see a panel of three white women (one of them turned out to be mixed race, but she appeared white).  I immediately had a problem with this.  There are many Black people filming in Africa right now, at this moment, and I am sure some of them are filming sensitive issues.  So I question the composition of the panel.  

Two of the filmmakers had made a film about LGBT activists in Uganda.  I'm not going to say much about this right now.  

The other white woman, Karen Boswall, had made a documentary in Mozambique entitled Dancing on the Edge, about health workers educating people in local communities in order to prevent the spread of HIV.  So this was a real conflict for the woman who was the central figure in the documentary - she was an HIV+ health worker who was participating in the ritual. 

Dancing on the Edge showed girls taking part in a traditional initiation ceremony.  They had to take a vow that they would always sexually satisfy their husbands and never refuse to do so.  This goes directly against the health initiative to encourage people to use condoms.  They also vowed to submit if their husbands decided to beat them.  Thus, the initiation instructed them on how to be a good woman. 

One thing I found very offensive was that Boswall said the ancestors had required women to take these vows - this is what the locals told her.  I had a problem with this because it is the duty of the ancestors to protect their descendants (although not all ancestors are protective).  If your ancestors are telling you to submit to beatings, they are not doing their job.  However, there was no analysis of this from the filmmaker.  

It has rightly been pointed out to me that religion and spirituality are often used to manipulate and control people, as depicted, for example, in Ousmane Sembene's film Moolaade.  Therefore, it is entirely likely that the ancestors are being slandered in this instance. 

The film depicted many girls and young women taking part in the ritual.  In a lengthy sequence, they are topless.  So we see this sea of breasts - again, with no explanation or analysis.  There is no voiceover to place this in context. 

One thing I found particularly disturbing was that many of these girls were very young - far too young to have breasts - in fact, they literally looked like little boys.  I question why children so young were participating in an initiation ritual.  

Another problem I had with this event was that Boswall was surprised at how many people had asked her about female genital mutilation (FGM) in connection with her film.  It is obvious that, in an African context, any discussion of female initiation ceremonies will include reference to FGM, but Boswall did not seem to understand this.  Nor was she aware of Moolaade.  I have a problem with someone who knows so little about African film, or indeed African culture, having her work included in this festival.  

Boswall was well-meaning.  She said she was disappointed that her film was unlikely to bring about change, and she plans to make fiction films rather than documentaries in future.  

Some useful reflections came out of the event, as the filmmakers involved were very candid about the effects of their work on African communities.  I shall say more about this in future. 

Although the BFI screens the excellent African Odysseys film series on a monthly basis, I was very disappointed by this offering from Film Africa. 

Nigerian Films at the BFI

Phone Swap and Maami are two films showing at the BFI this Saturday, as part of the African Odysseys strand, organised by London Black History Walks in conjunction with the BFI.  You can watch the trailer below.  

See also:  Naij:  A Film History of Nigeria.  

See also:  Film Africa:  Filming Tomorrow

 

Film Africa

Rungano Nyoni

I have been very much enjoying the Film Africa festival. 

Click here for the Film Africa programme.  

One of the delights of the festival is that we get to meet working filmmakers.  

Saturday, I attended a screenwriting workshop at the BFI with award-winning screenwriter Rungano Nyoni.  She gave us the benefit of her perspective of writing as an actor, rather than a trained screenwriter, which I found very educational and very stimulating. 

Then, Saturday night, Rich Mix screened several shorts including Yellow Fever (very powerful) and Native Sun (very poignant), along with Whitey's on the Moon and Walking Backwards, both by Caroline Deeds, who was present for the screening.  So I got to hang out with the director and her family.  Brilliant.  I recommend you see all of these films. 

I had some issues with the workshop at the BFI on Sunday on Filming Difficult Subjects.  More about this soon. 

The festival continues.  The BFI will screen two Nigerian blockbusters on Saturday as part of their African Odysseys strand:  Maami and Phone Swap.  See also:  Film Africa;  Filming Tomorrow. 

Modern-Day Slavery: Jamaica for Sale

Today, 23rd of August, is African Remembrance Day, which celebrates the Haitian Revolution.

On Saturday, the BFI screened “Jamaica for Sale” as part of its African Remembrance Day programme. This documentary by Esther Figueroa explores the way the hotels and tourism industry in Jamaica is destroying the island’s coastline and with it, its wildlife, and a whole way of life for many people.

Large sections of Jamaica’s coast have been sold off to private developers who build vast hotel complexes, restricting access to the beaches where people used to rest and relax.

The construction workers work 12-hours days, for which they are paid a pittance. Their working conditions are often unsafe, and accidents have led to injuries and deaths. The workers often have to wait weeks to be paid at all. Then, they spend up to a third of their wages transport to and from work.

This is modern-day slavery.

Meanwhile, the hotels are exempt from paying taxes for up to 15 years, which means that their profits are not benefiting the local economy.

The lack of access to the beaches is impacting on the fishing industry. Not that this matters, as the fish are dying off. The coral reefs are dying, so the fish have nowhere to breed. The trees are cut down to make way for the hotels, which means that birds have nowhere to nest. We see a shot of a pelican picking its way around debris in the sea.

The images in this film will shock and disturb you. The combination of greed, short-sightedness and wanton disregard both for the people of Jamaica and for the environment leaves me speechless (for once).

There are trade unions, as well as people organising locally around the environmental issues. The film raises many questions but provides no answers and, unfortunately, at the screening I attended, no answers were forthcoming. But you need to see this film.

Click here for the African Remembrance Day show on What U Need to Know.

See also:
Two Films about Haiti
Jamaica: Paradise Lost
Jamaica for Sale on Facebook

Come Back Africa: Two Early Anti-Apartheid Films

On Saturday, I attended a screening of two erly anti-apartheid films at the BFI.

"Come Back Africa" is an extraordinary film set in Johannesburg and Sophiatown in 1950. It features a cameo by Miriam Makeba.

The documentary "The End of the Dialogue" was made in 1959. We were fortunate to have two of the filmmakers at the screening.

These were the two earliest anti-apartheid films. "Come Back Africa" was made at a time when no one outside of South Africa was interested in apartheid.

Both of these films were made in secrecy and exposed the evils of apartheid to international audiences.

These films broke my heart. They didn't really tell or show me anything I didn't already know about apartheid. But seeing how Black people were treated, the patronising attitudes of the white people, the abuse, the poverty, the sense of helplessness as Black people tried to live normal lives under this appalling system, made this a very strong experience.

One thing that particuarly struck me was the level of resources, in terms of time, money and energy, the apartheid regime was willing to invest in breaking up African families.

These films remind us that not only were we stolen from Africa, Africa was stolen from us.

To read more, see ANC Welcomes Ruling.

To read more about the psychological effects of apartheid, racial discrimination and caste oppression see Dr. Ambedkar, Visionary.

See also: Why We Need to Heal.

Black Film: Babylon