{"id":15917,"date":"2022-06-30T14:13:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T12:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=15917"},"modified":"2022-06-30T14:15:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T12:15:41","slug":"amandla-sir-steve-mcqueens-bafta-winning-black-power-doccie-series-comes-to-showmax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2022\/06\/30\/amandla-sir-steve-mcqueens-bafta-winning-black-power-doccie-series-comes-to-showmax\/","title":{"rendered":"Amandla! Sir Steve McQueen\u2019s BAFTA-winning Black Power Doccie Series Comes To Showmax"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Showmax_black.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Showmax_black.jpg?w=750&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3061\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The BBC documentary collection <em>Resistance in a Hostile Environment<\/em>, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (<em>12 Years A Slave<\/em>), is now streaming on Showmax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The omnibus includes <em>Uprising, <\/em>which won the 2022 BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series, and <em>Black Power: A British Story of Resistance<\/em>, which was nominated for a 2022 BAFTA for Specialist Factual. Both have 100% critics\u2019 ratings on <em>Rotten Tomatoes<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The documentaries examine the systemic racial injustice that shaped what it meant to be Black in Britain from the late 1960s to the early 80s, and trace the real-life stories of resistance that inspired McQueen\u2019s five-film anthology series <em>Small Axe<\/em>, which won BAFTA and Critics\u2019 Choice awards among many, many others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As<em> IndieWire<\/em> puts it, \u201c<em>Small Axe<\/em> grew out of a desire to shed light on Black resistance movements in Britain&#8230; So, too, [do the] documentaries\u2026 which chronicle pivotal stories from recent British history largely ignored by media. Viewed collectively, the films make it clear that McQueen almost single-handedly aims to disrupt the preferred timeline with films that detail tumultuous crusades for change that cross borders, and still very much resonate today.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to producing the omnibus as a whole, McQueen and BAFTA nominee James Rogan (<em>Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation<\/em>, <em>Putin: A Russian Spy Story<\/em>) co-directed <em>Uprising<\/em>, which examines three intertwined events of 1981 that would go on to define race relations in the UK for a generation: the New Cross Fire, which killed 13 young Black people; the Black People\u2019s Day of Action; and the Brixton riots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Uprising | Trailer - BBC\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9jR5PtESXrI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Guardian <\/em>called the three-part miniseries \u201cbrilliant and furious and human,\u201d while the <em>Rotten Tomatoes<\/em> critics\u2019 consensus says, \u201cHonest, harrowing, and heartbreaking, <em>Uprising<\/em> is an incredible feat of documentary storytelling from Steve McQueen.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BAFTA nominee George Amponsah (<em>Enslaved<\/em>) directs <em>Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, <\/em>narrated by Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya (<em>Judas and the Black Messiah<\/em>). The feature documentary looks at the \u201860s and \u201870s through the eyes of the young Black people who refused to take racism as a part of the natural order of things in the UK, examining the socio-cultural movement that helped fuel hope and resilience, mobilised in protest of the apartheid system in South Africa, and ultimately started Britain on the road to being a more inclusive and diverse society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Black Power: A British Story of Resistance - BBC\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qFjTbXf-u2k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Black Power<\/em> draws on interviews with activists like Linton Kwesi Johnson, as well as archive footage of civil rights leaders, from Altheia Jones-LeCointe, Darcus Howe and Roy Sawh to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., to trace the rise of organisations such as the British Black Panthers, R.A.A.S. and The Fasimbas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDoes anybody remember learning about these prominent figures and crucial events in British Black history in school?\u201d asks <em>Black Girl Nerds<\/em>, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s maddening that this entire movement has been overlooked for decades.\u201d <em>Black Power: A British Story of Resistance<\/em>, they say, \u201cis truly a history lesson we need. Many of these important people have been forgotten or are completely unknown, but this documentary honours their legacies by shining a light on them. You\u2019ll be surprised at just how much we didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final documentary, <em>Subnormal: A British Scandal<\/em>, directed by newcomer Lyttanya Shannon, examines one of the biggest scandals in the history of British education (and the inspiration for <em>Education<\/em>, the final film in the <em>Small Axe<\/em> anthology): the unofficial but widely accepted segregation policy of the 60s and 70s, which saw hundreds of Black children in Britain labelled as \u201ceducationally subnormal\u201d and wrongly sent to schools for pupils deemed to have low intelligence, until Black parents, teachers and activists banded together to expose the injustice and force the education system to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Subnormal: A British Scandal | Trailer - BBC Trailers\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2hRvLAHjJMk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Guardian<\/em> says <em>Subnormal<\/em> \u201cis a chronicle of systemic racism\u2026 that ruined people\u2019s lives. The activists, academics and psychologists here all talk with a sense of steady fury about what was allowed to happen\u2026 This is a sobering story, told with skill and compassion, and it is a compelling and devastating account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As McQueen told <em>IndieWire<\/em>, \u201cThese stories are now out in the world, so no one can claim ignorance anymore. A generation decided it would no longer condone how British society defined it, and fought back. That was very important for me, that they are tightly interwoven into the fabric of British history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch all three documentaries on Showmax: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.showmax.com\/eng\/tvseries\/o3av3sr8-steve-mcqueens-uprising-black-power-and-subnormal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.showmax.com\/eng\/tvseries\/o3av3sr8-steve-mcqueens-uprising-black-power-and-subnormal<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch<em> <\/em>all five<em> Small Axe<\/em> films on Showmax: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.showmax.com\/eng\/tvseries\/i5tqlrxd-small-axe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.showmax.com\/eng\/tvseries\/i5tqlrxd-small-axe<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch <em>12 Years a Slave<\/em> on Showmax: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.showmax.com\/eng\/movie\/wbeaaiav-12-years-a-slave\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.showmax.com\/eng\/movie\/wbeaaiav-12-years-a-slave<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The BBC documentary collection Resistance in a Hostile Environment, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave), is now streaming on Showmax. The omnibus includes Uprising, which won the 2022 BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series, and Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, which was nominated for a 2022 BAFTA for Specialist&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2022\/06\/30\/amandla-sir-steve-mcqueens-bafta-winning-black-power-doccie-series-comes-to-showmax\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Amandla! Sir Steve McQueen\u2019s BAFTA-winning Black Power Doccie Series Comes To Showmax<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-15917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online","tag-showmax","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}