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1965
Sound
7m

Tense, graphic experimental short film portraying police brutality inside a jail cell.

This experimental short film uses a jarring percussion soundtrack and graphic imagery to explore police brutality and institutional racism. Joseph Layode plays a black man who is brutally beaten by a uniformed white man with a truncheon. When a white man (Mike Anglesey) enters the cell and extends his hands to Layode, they are violently struck apart by the truncheon. This intense, frenetic film cuts to the quick with its head-on confrontation of the violence of racism.

This challenging short was produced by the London School of Film Technique (later the London Film School), and directed by Philip Mottram, who subsequently spent many years teaching at the school.

Black Britain on Film

Striking, illuminating and sometimes surprising images of black culture, community and characters, spanning over a century of British film and TV.

From some of the earliest appearances at the dawn of the 20th century to groundbreaking postwar documentaries and contemporary features, this collection charts changing attitudes and hidden histories. Here are the trailblazers, the icons, the stereotypes, the controversies. These richly varied films uncover sometimes surprising histories of black culture and community. They tackle troubling issues of race, representation and identity. And they highlight some of the best of black British filmmaking, from the work of pioneers Horace Ové and Menelik Shabazz to later innovators John Akomfrah and Ngozi Onwurah