Small Axe: The Mangrove at the BBC

The Real Mangrove NIne

Imagine you are sitting in a local Caribbean cafe, enjoying a meal with your friends and loved ones, and the police come in and smash the place up.  I heard about the Mangrove  many years ago.  

 

This is the first of four films which The BBC will be screening on the BBC under the heading of "Small Axe".  

These films by Steve McQueen, who directed Twelve Years a Slave, will explore the experience of Black people in Britain.  

All the proprietor, Frank Crichlow, wanted was to run a Caribbean restaurant which reflected his culture and that of his local community.  But the racism of the police turned it into a battleground.  They are shown brutally trying to close down the Mangrove and even assaulting Frank Crichlow in the courtroom. 

This film, The Mangrove, is still available on iplayer.  This article about the Mangrove and the Mangrove Nine contains footage of the events described.  It also gives background information, including the fact that drugs, which apparently came from a police lab, were found on the premises.  

Black activists, including Darcus Howe, got involved in the struggle around the Mangrove.  This was an education for many people, not least Frank Crichlow.  

If you have not seen this film, you definitely need to see it.  I hope it will be shown internationally.  

Plus journalist Peter Kellner talks about giving evidence at the Old Bailey trial of the Mangrove Nine. 

See also:  Injustice:  The Film the Police Tried to Ban.  

Plus, we discussed television showing films about the Black experience here.  

Please share this with your networks and please comment below.  Thanks.  

 

Black Film: Blood Ah Go Run

I saw this film when I first came to the UK, nearly 30 years ago.

I saw it again recently, with a Q & A with the director, Menelik Shabazz, when it was screened at the BFI as part of the African Odysseys programme.

Blood Ah Go Run (Blood Will Flow/Be Shed) documents events that took place in London in 1981 including the New Cross fire, the subsequent Black People’s Day of Action, and the Brixton riot.

The film records how the Metropolitan Police attacked and attempted to subvert the peaceful march on the Black People’s Day of Action, the first time Black people in the UK had demonstrated publicly in such numbers.

White British people and institutions must have been shocked when they realised the potential power of Black people in this country.

The Brixton riot followed two months later, sparked by the “Sus” laws and the police’s “Operation Swamp” in Brixton. To read more about this, click here for my blog about Mavis Best. See also my interview with Alex Wheatle.

In retrospect, I wonder what the authorities expected to happen – the actions of the police seemed calculated to provoke riot and unrest.

In the Q & A, Shabazz described what he called “guerilla filmmaking”. Film stock was expensive, so he had to beg and borrow partial reels of film on which to record this film. The footage of the riot was taken directly from TV coverage.

Shabazz also described how he went into the BBC studios after hours so that a colleague could edit the film.

Blood Ah Go Run documents a crucial point in British history and, as such, should be shown in every school.

See also: Next Black History Events.

Africa and Africans on Film.