Thanks very much for your support. The petition is now at 12,000. Please tell two friends to sign and share to triple that number especially as the BFI has tried to take the petition down. See Screen Daily article below.

At present, lawyers from race equality/civil rights groups are examining the BFI’s behaviour with regards to breach of policy/law.

Six days after the last update (13th October), which featured a BFI apology to Faisal Quersihi about racism, the BFI London Film Festival was criticised for refusing to screen an anti-racist film ‘Undercover: Exposing the Far Right’.  The film looks at the background to recent race riots: HERE

That documentary is exactly the type of content African Odysseys would screen. It is the sort of educational, anti-racist film that is at risk of not having a monthly home if the proposed cuts go ahead.

As of today, the BFI have NOT reversed their decision to:

•              Make redundant the person who co-founded African Odysseys and remove their 17 years of expertise of African diaspora films

•              Delete the 48 week  job position which enables African Odysseys to exist

•              Ignore the advice of the all-Black, voluntary advisory committee which created and has curated the successful and popular programme since 2007

BFI have been unable to explain how the programme will go ahead without all of the above.

At the same time, the BFI say they are ‘looking forward to celebrating 20 years of African Odysseys’ , so why make the co-founder redundant in advance of the ‘celebration’ ? Why delete the job role that brought tens of thousands of diverse people to the venue?  

On the 25th October, Screen Daily published an article on the situation HERE

The BFI’s response fails to mention:

• ·       Anything about the 17 years of AO exclusion from Sight and Sound magazine detailed HERE
• ·       That the Steering Committee had to complain and lobby to get any AO titles listed on the BFI iplayer. They were only included after a written protest to CEO Ben Roberts on 23rd June 2020, extract in italics below:

…Our track record should speak for itself. However, it seems that our loyalty, commitment, and expertise have been overlooked and taken for granted. For example, BFI current online viewing content includes material under the banner of Black Star; this was a one-off season that was given considerable marketing and promotion but had limited success.  At the same time, the BFI iPlayer online content does not mention or reflect the hundreds of titles and Q&As we have curated in this BFI strand over the last 13 years. We highlight these examples because it seems that African Odysseys (AO) is not worthy of current BFI iPlayer online content. This begs the question of how committed the BFI actually is to diversity and inclusion.

• ·       There are no AO films planned beyond January. Normally by this period (October) the Steering Committee would have films set up to April/May. This has not happened purely due to the proposed cuts and redundancies.
• That, far from adequately resourcing the programme, BFI management repeatedly told the Committee they had ‘no resources’ to produce trailers about African Odyssey films. Therefore, the Committee produced and paid for their own trailers, like this one HERE
• That BFI management repeatedly told the Committee they had ‘no resources’ to record the Q&A at AO screenings. Therefore, Committee members got their family to come in, voluntarily, with their own cameras to film/edit events. This is the only reason the James Baldwin Q&A with Gary Younge and Caryl Phillips is preserved for archives, as was the equally rare and interesting Claude Mckay Q&A with Burt Caesar and Colin Grant which can be seen HERE
• ·       These events took place during the last two months not in 2022. Many brilliant Q&As were not filmed, however.
• ·       The quoted reggae season of 2022 only got decent funding after several complaints were made that the original budget was inadequate.

The BFI’s explanation for not doing a Racial Equality Impact Assessment (REIA) makes little sense.

An REIA is a systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. It is linked to the 2010 Race Public Sector Equality Duty and should be done in advance of any decisions. Details HERE

·       The forced removal of the only person at the BFI with 17 years of expert knowledge of African cinema should have  triggered an REIA on its own.

·       The sudden removal after, 17 years, of the 48 weeks of work job role that enabled African Odysseys to exist in the first place and that brought tens of thousands of people to the BFI, also demands a REIA. There is an obvious need to assess how the removal of that position would affect the huge diverse audiences that have only come to the BFI because of that position.

·       Several South Asian groups have also written to the BFI expressing their dismay at the proposed redundancy and position removal. The position has also enabled refugee and elderly groups to access the BFI. None of these groups have been consulted as the BFI management has refused to do an REIA, so how can the BFI know it will not affect them?

In response to the numerous questions above, the BFI’s only response is that ‘there are no plans to cancel African Odysseys’. Meanwhile, all of the people responsible for creating and curating the programme for 17 years, state that is exactly what would happen should the proposed cuts go ahead.

This petition is supported by veteran activists like; Professor Gus John, Dr Patrick Vernon OBE, Ken Fero, Mia Morris OBE, Leila Hassan Howe, Juliet Alexander, Charles Thompson MBE and Terry Jervis who, apart from having decades of experience in race/film/education, have all worked directly with the BFI.

Please continue to share the petition link on your social media.

 “I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.” James Baldwin