African Odysseys presents a season of Blagroves’ films and books starting with two of his classics plus Q&A with the man himself
Independent filmmaker Ismahil Blagrove of Ricenpeas.com made a raft of hard-hitting, pioneering films 30 years ago which still have an important social justice legacy.
Blagrove worked with mainstream media like BBC and Channel 4 but rejected their bias and chose to make his own self-financed films, show them at grassroots venues and sell DVDs direct to the audience.
Before phones had cameras in them Blagrove was getting incredible footage from inside crack houses, presidential palaces and civil war battlefields . He grew up in London schooled by civil rights activists like Roy Sawh, Frank Crichlow Darcus Howe and Professor Gus John. He took on police brutality, fought NF fascists, taught at Hyde Park university, negotiated with Sierra Leonean warlords and rode a fold-up Brompton bicycle all over Vietnam, Thailand,China and Laos.
He also spent three decades researching his incredible book ‘Frontline : a story of struggle, resistance and Black identity in Notting Hill’ where he interviewed 160 elders, then self published his 800 page book of their stories. He presently lives in Cuba and this is a rare public appearance.
The films: Cuba with or Without Fidel and Bang Bang in da Manor
Cuba With or Without Fidel (2007) is a ground-breaking documentary that features Cuba’s leading politicians, intellectuals and dissidents, who debate the future direction of the Island’s 66 year-old revolution.
How do Cubans feel about their own identity and freedom of speech? For the first time, the people of Cuba question the values that western democracy holds sacred and the price Cubans have paid for their independence.
With Or Without Fidel is an extremely rare glimpse into the heart of Cuban society. While the BBC, CNN and other correspondents were expelled from the country, Rice N Peas Films was given unprecedented access to produce an honest portrayal of the Island.
Filmed during the most precarious period in Cuba’s history, With or Without Fidel reveals the aspirations and vulnerabilities of a country on the brink of change. Watch trailer HERE
Bang Bang in da Manor (2004)
A social investigation into the disproportionate levels of violence and murder suffered by the black community of Britain, this documentary identifies the failure of the British educational system, the breakdown of family units, and consumerism/capitalism as significant contributory factors into this phenomenon. With interviews from gunmen, underground arms dealers, drug users and victims of the violence, the film attempts to define the social environment which conditions and nurtures the desire to consume and destroy. Bang Bang In Da Manor has been described as the most graphic and disturbing documentary ever made in Britain. Audience feedback HERE
This is an African Odysseys film screeninng, previously at BFI Southbank monthly from 2007 to January 2025 when BFI cancelled it with no consultation of the Black community and against the wishes of 17,500 people, while refusing to do a Race Equality Impact Assessment and ignoring the advice of 20 professors/academics and race equality experts.
This event would have been held at the more central, much bigger, taxpayer-funded BFI Southbank but for the BFI’s behaviour toward the 20-year-old, grassroots, volunteer run programme.
The petition is supported by people like Akala, Adoah Anjoh, Rudolph Walker, Terry Jervis, Professor Gus John, Professor Paul Gilroy, Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, Professor Cecil Gutzmore, Dr Margaret Busby, Dr Ken Fero, Bishop Rosemarie Mallet and many more. Please add your signature below to fight this injustice
Other coming events from www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk
- Black History Steam train tour
- Black History Bus Tour/ River Cruise
- Hackney, Harlem, St Paul’/Bank, Theatreland and Soho Black History Walks
- African Odysseys, Racism in Academia and @BFI Southbank
- Ismahil Blagrove season of films and books
- Frantz Fanon weekender
- 60 years of Black British Civil Rights, racism @BFI with Professor Gus John
- Kung Fu and anti-racist street fighters with Professor Lez Henry
- World Wars and Black soldiers. African Odysseys @BFI with Professor Patrick Vernon
- 60 years of Black history Success Stories 1-20
- Sign petition to save African Odysseys and Black film history at BFI Southbank HERE