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On 1st October, renowned British Civil Rights activist Professor Gus John, wrote a nine page open letter to Ben Roberts CEO of BFI, detailing the history of Black film exhibition since the 1980s with fifteen signatures from the media and education world. Link HERE
On 8th October, the BFI put this statement about African Odysseys on their website: HERE
On 10th October, the Guardian published this article about racism at the BFI and an apology from Ben Roberts to Faisal Querishi HERE
On 11th October, ScreenDaily published this article on the same topic: HERE
At present, the BFI has not reversed its decision, therefore the 8th October statement makes no sense. If they are looking forward to the 20 years celebration, why remove the person who set up, and is responsible for its success, three years in advance of the anniversary?
If there is ‘commitment’, why choose to lose the unique 17 years of Black film history curation that no one else in the BFI has by proposing a redundancy in the first place?
How does ‘commitment’ to African Odysseys mean deleting the post that demands 48 weeks of work every year to produce African Odysseys in the first place?
The BFI management are stating publicly what African Odysseys will and will not do but they have not consulted with the African Odysseys Steering Committee, the Black people who created it in 2007 and have curated it since then.
In fact, the BFI management has repeatedly ignored the committee’s advice. In a letter to the CEO Ben Roberts, 13th June 2024, the committee specifically asked if a Race Equality Impact Assessment had been ordered. This request was repeated verbally in an online meeting on 2nd July with senior management, including the diversity department, and in further emails most recently on 8th August.
To date no Race Equality Impact Assessment has been done.
The senior management have ignored the decades-long, persistent exclusion of African Odysseys from the BFI magazine Sight and Sound.
Sight and Sound magazine’s October 2024 issue out now, does not mention Black history month. It reviews sixty films, not one of them is African. In 17 years, Sight and Sound has never done a feature on African Odysseys. AO programmed eight rare films on James Baldwin including a screening of one of Baldwin’s favourite movies with a Q & A with Gary Younge and Caryl Phillips on 22 October. HERE
None of this is featured in the October issue.
Unusual films from Haiti, Bahamas, New Guinea, Sudan, Brazil are at risk if AO is discontinued. The AO programme uniquely provides a monthly avenue, unlike annual one-off film festivals, for educational and anti-racist films ignored by the mainstream. Below is a tiny sample of the kind of films/events AO has produced.
· Who was Frantz Fanon? Q&A
· Horace Ove, the legend of
· Darcus Howe, Black Power to Broadcasting
· The Marcus Garvey story premiere and Q&A
· Race and Representation in Shakespeare with Burt Caesar and Hugh Quarhsie
· Black British Civil rights with Professor Gus John and Gary Younge
· The Real Warrior Queen Nzingha with Dr Ama Biney
· Secrets of the Grenada Revolution with Dr Bruce Paddington
· Blacks Britannica, banned Black British Civil rights film, Q&A Margaret Henry, Colin Prescod
Click on this link HERE to see video extracts. This archive of African Odyssey events is recorded and maintained by voluntary family members, as the BFI said they had no money to record such Q&A’s. See also: HERE
The BFI is receiving lots of calls and emails from concerned people. Please continue to share the link on your social media.
The petition is supported by people like Dame Professor Elizabeth Anionwu and Dr Patrick Vernon. This is significant as they were both involved in the successful 2013 campaign to reverse Michael Gove’s decision to remove Mary Seacole from the school curriculum.