A familiar though good conversation on the business of black film in the UK.
The convo sounds very much like those we have here in the USA. So there’s a simultaneous familiarity, and distance to it… to me anyway.
But it’s worth listening to even if only for the guests! Director John Akomfrah, author, and film programmer Nadia Denton, Crystal Emmanuel, and Sunny Lambe of Black Business Initiative chat with Dotun Adebayo of BBC London 94.9FM.
It’s a 2012 broadcast, but still very current. I stumbled across it today and felt it worthy of a repost, in light of all the ongoing chatter across the pond (and in the USA as well) on the so-called plight and flight of black British talents (actors, filmmakers, etc), from the UK, to the seemingly more promising streets of Hollywood, USA, where opportunities exist for those performers, in contrast to what’s available at *home* (a matter that’s been addressed several times on this blog over the years).
The panel even touches on George Lucas, Red Tails, Spike Lee, The Help, *supporting* black cinema, and much more. It’s always worth seeing cinema (especially black American cinema) through the eyes of non-black Americans who are of the diaspora.
Listen: