60 Years of Carnival: A history of Steel Pan Pioneer, Jit Samaroo: African Odysseys

Steel Pan legend gets a documentary 65 years in the making to mark 60 years of the Notting Hill Carnival and 20 years of African Odysseys

This special African Odysseys event is presented as part of Windrush International Caribbean Film Festival for the 20th anniversary of African Odysseys monthly Black history film series

60 years of Carnival — Steel pan and the Jit Samaroo story Plus Q&A

The official WICFF Film festival continues with the untold story of Trinidadian pan legend Dr Jit Samaroo.

Founder of the Samaroo Jets and the only arranger to win eight National Panorama Large Band titles with BP Renegades, Samaroo is presented not only as a champion arranger, but as a teacher, innovator and global ambassador for the national instrument

“Jit Samaroo’s quiet, humble and virtuosic nature has meant that, while he helped to establish the musical precedent by which modern steelpan now lives, his life and journey is surprisingly unarchived, especially on video,” said director Michael Gibbing
Watch trailer HERE

Plus three short films: Entitled by Adeyemi Michaels , Roots by Don Letts and Pan Gyul by Juliette Jeffers

Same Day, Same venue at 5pm.

Hero: Blockbuster World War 2 drama on RAF legend Ulric Cross Film on highest-ranking and most decorated Black man in WW2 RAF, lawyer, judge, Pan Africanist who helped free Ghana from colonialism. HERO is not just about Cross’s extraordinary life and journey but about the dynamic and transformative times in which he lived. It tells the untold story of those Caribbean professionals who helped to liberate Africa from colonialism, shining a light on an important chapter in Caribbean history, and on Caribbean identity itself. PLUS Director Q&A

Watch trailer HERE  get tickets HERE

Director: Frances-Anne Solomon. Starring: Rudoplh Walker, Jimmy Akingbola (Holby City), Joseph Marcell (Fresh Prince of Belair), Fraser James (Terminator) and starring Trinidad’s Nickolai Salcedo as Ulric Cross.

Plus short film: Guyana, my Dad and me by Noella Mingo

Hero is a classic example of the value and legacy of African Odysseys, co-founder David Somerset chose the indie film for exhibition at the BFI Southbank and arranged a superb panel which can be seen below. Hero sold out the 450 seat venue and then went on a 50 city tour of the UK. One screening hosted by Black History Walks led to Hero debut at the Los Angeles Pan African film festival. It then got deals on BBC and Amazon. ! This incredible success was unlikely to have occured but for African Odysseys history of championing African diaspora directors, producers and stories. This is one reason why the British Film Institutes (BFI) 2025 decision to cancel African Odysseys against the wishes of 19,000 petitioners makes no sense especially as BFI in 2023 had agreed in writing to host a 20th anniversary at BFI in 2026. Full details here

Other coming events ww.blackhistorywalks.co.uk HERE

• 60 years of Black British Civil Rights Professor Gus John
• Black history Bus tour/ Steam train trip
• Playing Away by Sir Horace Ove
• Frantz Fanon weekender
• 20 years of African Odysseys: 19,000 people and racism @BFI
• Black Women and Film Exhibition
• Graphic Novels: Publishing Black History and movies
• Mayfair, Hackney, Notting Hill, Southbank, Trafalgar Square, Regents Canal and Soho walks
• In search of Mami Wata : African Spirituality
• Black Liverpool film and book launch with Professor Stephen Small
• The Price of Memory. Reparations @Bernie Grant Arts centre
• I fought the law and I won, a Black judge of 60 years of Equality legislation @BCA

These events are organised by Black History Walks as part of 61 Years Since 1965, the first ever Race Relations Act, and 20 years of the African Odysseys film series (2007) HERE