Street Warriors (People to People)
Black London's subcultures are brought into the frame in this gripping documentary.
Street hockey, a sport brought to prominence in the UK by young Black Londoners, is spotlighted by seminal Black-British documentarian Imruh Caesar in this video shown in the Channel 4 strand People to People. Retracing the development of the sport, Caesar visits the concrete halls of the Sobell Centre in Holloway and the Elephant and Castle Sports Centre, looking at the lives of the young men behind the Street Warriors team and the street hockey subculture.
Personal interviews reveal the dedication to the sport and how neighbourhood affinity and soundsystem culture became intertwined with street hockey as wider cultural movements in the black community coalesced as breakers and DJs came to perform at street hockey events. The climate of funding for Black sports initiatives is explored as we see how uneven funding and the deprioritising of inner-London communities hampered the development of these sports teams.
Look out for the images of 80s London and the use of the undercroft at the Southbank by the Street Warriors, early on-screen footage of one of the many cultures that have used this iconic space. This documentary came out of the film and video workshop movement, a funding initiative to support independent and experimental filmmakers which underscored the development of groups of filmmakers such as those of the Ceddo Film and Video Workshop, which was behind this video.
Documentary which looks at the street sport of Street Hockey, examining its
roots and its social structure through the eyes of three members of the
London team the Street Warriors.
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Black & S. Asian Arts Filmmaking
Exploring the rich and extensive shared history of Black and South Asian filmmaking.
Collaboration has been at the heart of the work of Black and South Asian artists, from the Black theatre movement of the 60s and 70s to the film and video workshops of the 80s and 90s. This reflects an emphasis on collectivism as a way of sharing resources, as well as a political expression.
Britain's Black and South Asian communities have long shared similar themes and dealt with shared experiences in the present, while often making potent creative connections with artistic traditions in Africa, South Asia and Caribbean. This selection of videos, mostly drawn from the 1980s and 90s, encompasses a rich variety of genres and forms.
