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ADIFF 2011 OPENING NIGHT AN EVENING WITH MENELIK SHABAZZ The illusions being burnt are those of Pat Williams (Cassie McFarlane), an attractive 22-year old Black girl with a steady clerical job, her own little flat in West London, and the aim of settling down to a comfortable lower-middle class married life with Mr. Right. She is shaken out of this dream by Del, a feckless, disgruntled macho type (played with sullen charm by one of UK’s best Black actors, Victor Romero), who moves in with her uninvited. He expects sex and food on demand and comes to regard the right side of the bed as his private preserve. The film explores first the growing tensions of the affair and then the girl's gradual realization that her aspirations are simply those that a white world has imposed upon her. Drawn into the world of 'Africa' (and the realization of her own cultural background) and also one in which women are not mere chattels, looking for more chattels, she begins to see society more sharply.
8:00pm THE STORY OF LOVERS ROCK Lovers Rock, often dubbed 'romantic reggae' is a uniquely black British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems. Live performance, comedy sketches, dance, interviews and archive shed light on the music and the generation that embraced it. Lovers Rock allowed young people to experience intimacy and healing through dance- known as 'scrubbing'- at parties and clubs. This dance provided a coping mechanism for what was happening on the streets. Lovers Rock developed into a successful sound with national UK hits and was influential to British bands (Police, Culture Club, UB40) These influences underline the impact the music was making in bridging the multi-cultural gap that polarized the times. The film sheds light on a forgotten period of British music, social and political history.
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Menelik Shabazz comes to mind with the mere mention of Black independent filmmaking in the United Kingdom. Born in Barbados, Menelik was introduced to the world of video during his teen-age years in London. He attended the London International Film School (1974-76). Since that time he has worked as an independent filmmaker, very conscious of the world around him. Preceding his first short documentary, Step Forward Youth about London-born black youth, he debuted his first feature film, Burning An Illusion, in 1980, The film, funded by the British Film Institute, won the Grand Prix at the Amien Film Festival in France. This coming of age drama about a woman, who gains a greater awareness of her identity and position in contemporary British society, forged new traditions in British Black filmmaking. In 1982, Kuumba Productions, a commercial company Shabazz co-founded, became an outlet to create independent projects in London. He produced documentaries: Street Warriors, The People's Account and I Am Not Two Islands. Shabazz is the co-founder of Ceddo Film/Video Workshop in London. Through Ceddo he wrote and directed Time & Judgement, which tells the history of the struggles of the Black community across the world through the use of newsreel footage. In 1996, as part of the six part BBC Education series Hidden Empire, Shabazz completed Catch A Fire which documents the life of Paul Bogle and the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion. Frustrated by how Black filmmakers were being maltreated in the UK, prompted Shabazz's decision to publish the Black Filmmaker Magazine (BFM). In addition to serving as Publisher and editor of this London based magazine, he continues to write/develop projects for cinema and television, and serve as the Director of the BFM International Film Festival. Lecture Topics: Scriptwriting, Directing, Filmmaking in the UK, and West Indies Cinema Filmography:
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