Black British Filmmaking

A fostered Nigerian boy growing up in Essex loses all sense of identity and joins a racist skinhead gang. Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Oz, Lost) directs this powerful drama based on his own, extraordinary upbringing.

A ferocious dystopian nightmare, this was the first film directed by a Black British woman to receive a UK theatrical release.

Moving drama about three close friends forever tied to a dark secret from their teenage past.

Noel Clarke and Menhaj Huda’s explosive youth film follows the drug, sex and crime-fuelled antics of a group of West London teens over the course of a single day.

After being released from prison following a murder charge, Sam Peel (Noel Clarke) attempts to reboot his life and seek redemption.

A decade after the release of Adulthood, Sam (Noel Clarke) is trying to keep his family safe while simmering old grudges threaten to resurface.

A tense and terrifying motorway thriller about a man whose girlfriend is kidnapped by a malevolent trucker, directed by former Radio 1 DJ Mark Tonderai.

Radical resistance in the postwar British Caribbean community, from the 1948 Nationality Act to the 1958 Brixton riots.

This urgent, impassioned documentary follows a new generation of Black activists as they fight for social and political change in London and beyond.

Neeta and her crew rise to dancehall fame in North West London's Caribbean community, in the first Black British musical.

David Oyelowo makes his first feature film role as one of posse of DJs who enrage a local drug baron after stealing his dog.

A cricketing comedy of manners exploring white and black stereotypes, from pioneering British filmmaker Horace Ové.

This documentary by Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion) about the response to the New Cross Fire in 1981 prefigures the widespread social unrest later that year.

What do you do when a Hollywood star makes a film in your neighbourhood? Nick his chair, of course!

Animated awakening: a young black man in an oppressive urban environment finds a new outlook by embracing his African roots

Street-smart Hackney comedy about three friends whose unexpected cash windfall funds the mother of all parties; from the talents behind YouTube hit Mandem on the Wall.

When a young black wide-boy rescues a rich white girl from a heroin overdose – and falls for her – he’s drawn into a world of high-class crime.

Big Audio Dynamite’s Don Letts made his acting debut in this gripping, gritty 1990 drama of dreads, drugs, and music business corruption.

In his thrilling directorial debut, Idris Elba brings to life Victor Headley’s cult crime novel.

The women of Rastafari talk about their relationship to the movement’s development.

Experimental monologue about the trauma of racial harassment and self-hate that accompanies growing up mixed-race in Britain.

Isaac Julien and Mark Nash’s celebrated experimental documentary about the Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist and revolutionary.

John Akomfrah mixes archive material, literary and musical quotations and newly shot silent footage in a wry, rapt meditation on memory and migration.

A young gay couple’s relationship is put to the test as a road trip takes a sinister turn in Lloyd Reckord's daring underground short.