Handsworth Songs
by John Akomfrah
2 oct. at 2pm
5 oct. at 2pm
9 oct. at 2pm
Théâtre El Hamra
Director: John Akomfrah
Producer : Lina Gopaul
Production: Smoking Dog Films
Video
In October 1985 Britain witnessed a spate of civil disturbances in the Birmingham district of Handsworth and in urban centres of London. These were violent, tragic events, marked by the death of an elderly black woman, Joy Gardner and a white policeman, Keith Blakelock.
Handsworth Songs takes as its point of departure these events and the inability of the British media to go beyond its concern with demonising or rationalising the rioters and their motives, to break the anxiety-driven loop of morbid responses to the presence of blacks in Britain.
An experimental film essay on race and disorder in Britain, filmed in Handsworth and London during the riots of 1985 and incorporating newsreel and archival material.