The £4.5bn British film industry is one of the most successful in the world, producing films like The King’s Speech, Skyfall, Slumdog Millionaire, Harry Potter yet when it comes to producing Black British films it mysteriously becomes anonymous. The facts below make for painful reading:
- Between 1990 and 2012 (22 years) the UK only produced and distributed eight Black British films.
- Black talent still have very few opportunities to have careers in the UK film industry which is dominated disproportionately by white males.
- The UK film industry employs around 100,000 people but less than 7% come from ethnic minority groups.
- Major broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB hardly show any black British films.
- Government film policy completely ignores the contributions a successful Black segment of the UK film industry can add to the UK in social and economic terms.
- The huge export potential Black British films can unlock from countries like the USA, Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica and Brazil to name a few is just ignored.
- Cultural life in the UK is significantly poorer because the positive contributions UK black films can make to the building of understanding and creating harmony within the UK’s diverse ethnic population is not taken advantage of.
We at Talking Drum Entertainment would dearly like to see many more Black British films made and to this end we have just presented a report to the CEO of the British Film Institute (BFI), Ministers and all the major decision makers within UK film industry titled ‘BUILDING A COMMERCIALLY VIABLE BLACK SEGMENT OF THE UK FILM INDUSTRY’. This report challenges the UK government through the BFI to formulate and implement polices that will aid in the development of a Black sector of the UK film industry. If you would like to join us on this campaign you can help by writing a letter of support, by going to our website www.talkingdrum-entertainment.com, you can write directly to the BFI at director@bfi.org.uk, share this article amongst your social media contacts or any other influential contact you may have or just simply go to Talking Drum Entertainment’s Facebook Page and like us. Every little helps and we hope we can count on your support.
If you would like to read the full report follow the link above.
