Ava DuVernay, London Film Festival, BFI deceit : African Odysseys
Thanks very much for signing . Please continue to share the petition/updates on social media. To get up to speed on the entire campaign check out these most recent posts:
24th September 2026 : BFI called out for lying to the public. Two examples HERE
10th September 2026 : 9 Examples of Racism @BFI Southbank HERE
26th August 2026 : Black Professors ignored but dogs heard at Picturehouse HERE
8th August 2026 : What's the link between African Odysseys and Sky TVs hit show Possession ? HERE
11th July 2026 Evidence @BFI betrayed 20 years of African Odysseys . Management 2023 promises broken HERE
There will be a face-to-face public update on Friday 6th November HERE
As mentioned previously the BFI has the right to reply to all of these factual updates but has never done so since 29 October 2024 HERE when they were promptly proven to have been lying HERE. They have said nothing on this platform since then, which says a great deal in itself.
On the 24th September 2026 petition update the BFI was challenged to prove it was not lying and given 24 hours to evidence what they were saying, to hundreds of thousands of people, was true, as stated in this extract:
The BFI are however, happy to lie to third parties where there is no automatic right of replay from African Odysseys . For example, the BFI are on record as telling various organisations and individuals that African Odysseys was put ‘on pause’ because the Steering Committee refused to meet with BFI unless African Odysseys co-founder David Somerset was reinstated after being made redundant. This is a lie.
The only meeting to discuss African Odysseys with the BFI was set for 17th January 2025 but the BFI cancelled it with 2 hours notice as reported HERE. Somerset was still employed by BFI then. The Steering Committee offered another meeting within the week but BFI rejected it also. Somerset’s official last day was 31st January 2025. African Odysseys Steering Committee never made such a demand in the first place and no meeting was arranged after the 31st January so this is a double lie.
All correspondence with BFI about African Odysseys was made via email. If what the BFI states is true then they can post the email from the Steering Committee where this demand to 'reinstate Somerset or no meeting could take place' was made, to this platform within 24 hours. Failure to do so will be taken as proof that BFI senior management are liars to the public.
The BFI has been called out to their face for lying before. In this viral video clip Dr Michelle Asantewa eviscerates BFI management for their atrocious treatment of African Odysseys. HERE
Dr Asantewa calls out BFI for destroying the 20-year-old, monthly, educational, anti-racist, Black history film programme, while ignoring; 19,000 petitioners, the 2010 Race Equality law and £6 million pounds of voluntary labour. That Q&A on the 11th January 2025 for the sold out screening of Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat was filmed by the BFI but never released to the public.
Today is the 14th October 2026, three weeks later and the BFI has nothing to say. No response. No evidence. No answer to a simple question about the biggest race scandal in their 93 year history. A public complaint to a taxpayer-funded ‘anti-racist’ charity (according to BFI CEO Ben Roberts just after George Floyd HERE ) about racism, supported by 19,000 people and the BFI has nothing to say.
African Odysseys expects that the BFI will now elaborate on the statement BFI Chair Jay Hunt made to Parliament as referenced in the screenshot above dated January 28 2025 in a Deadline article by Jake Kanter. Hunt stated she had appointed two board level 'Anti-racism Champions’ in the wake of the Faisal Querishi apology from Ben Roberts in 2024 HERE
The BFI has 24 hours to respond to this petition and tell the public who these champions are. It makes no sense to have ‘anti-racist champions’ who the public cannot access when there are h evidenced complaints of race discrimination.Keeping them secret is denying access to fair treatment. If the BFI fails to respond again the implications are that these people do not exist and that Jay Hunt misled Parliament.
Perhaps the BFI thinks that the public will be distracted from the appalling treatment of African Odysseys by Ava Duvernay’s new film at London Film Festival . The fact is that Ms Duvernay is part of African Odysseys 20 year legacy of platforming great directors that mainstream cinemas ignore due to their race. It must be remembered that the British Film Institute did not even celebrate the work of Menelik Shabbaz work until African Odysseys was established in 2007.
It was African Odysseys founding member Sylviane Rano who was first to screen Ms Duvernays films while the BFI has routinely ignoring Black female directors. Sylviane’s Images of Black Women Film Festival was set up in 2005 due to the exclusion of Black films with positive images
IBW screened Duvernays first narrative feature film I Will Follow (2011) to a 250 full house at the Tricycle cinema. It was reviewed and hosted by Lisa Bent HERE . IBW was also the first to show Duvernays Middle of Nowhere (2012) starring a then up-and-coming David Oyelowo. Rano who now lives in Martinique was able to organise a meeting for Duverany with Euzhan Palcy who is also from Martinique. Palcy had been an idol of Duvernays for some time. Palcy was the first Black female director to have a major Hollywood film, A Dry White Season (1989)
It was Rano’s IBW festival that brought thousands of Black women to the BFI long before the BFI invented the term ‘cultural partner’ to describe what African Odysseys did for two decades with no such credit. Rano can be seen with her audience, discussing her film festival HERE
Of course now that Duvernay is a huge star BFI is happy to love her up, but it is the grassroots who rocked with her from day one, watched her movies at IBW/African Odysseys events and made her a star.
Rano also curated Adopted ID by Sonia Gooding-Togobo (2013) at BFI Southbank as can be seen HERE with commentary from Gaylene Gould, Lemn Sissay and Brother Shakara. The BFI was hugely boosted by this audience development and endorsement all of which were provided by volunteers.
African Odysseys volunteers, who filled the BFI’s coffers with £6 million of labour/consultancy plus all profits from every monthly screening since 2007, only got free tickets to London Film Festival after George Floyd.
Even though African Odysseys films regularly sold out the BFI’s seater throughout the year, their submissions for London Film Festival films were routinely rejected. Similarly Sight and Sound rejected any features on African Odysseys despite consistent sell outs, superb reviews and great content.
Of course, none of this archival information was mentioned at the BFI's recent event on Duvernay, as staff there are banned from mentioning African Odysseys in an ongoing attempt to erase the legacy of the popular Black history series. That this happens in the same year that the BFI had agreed in writing to have a 20th anniversary season at Southbank as confirmed with senior manager Stuart Brown in 2023; and in the shadow of Professor Jason Arday, with Professor Gus John being studiously ignored for two years, is both racist, perverse and bad business. The Stuart Brown minutes are reproduced HERE Brown to be clear, is in charge of audience strategy, cultural and commercial performance for BFI cinemas, theatrical distribution, DVD releases, BFI Player, and international programme tours.
More recently it was the curation of David Somerset, co-founder of African Odysseys, who lobbied to get Ava Duvernay's Origins (2023) screened at BFI Southbank and Dr Michelle Asantewa hosted a packed Q&A in the Blue room after the full house in the 450 seater. Origins would not have been shown but for African Odysseys.
This is the type of programming and audience that BFI clearly does not want, otherwise why would they get rid of David Somerset the only person with 18 years of Black film knowledge at BFI and delete his post entirely meaning that the work could not possibly continue? While doing this the BFI refused to answer these 8 simple questions HERE or even talk to the loyal volunteers with two decades of loyal service to the charity.
The next African Odysseys film to take place outside of the BFI will be , We Were There, a documentary on Black people in renaissance Europe HERE . Further updates on BFI's legal obligations will be released shortly.