Fay Craig & the Boscoe Holder Dancers - Voodoo - Cinebox

1962
Sound
2m

Dancers Boscoe Holder and Fay Craig shake out some sultry shapes in this vibrant vintage slice of bongo-driven kitsch.

Dancers Boscoe Holder and Fay Craig move it and groove it while two scrawny white bongo drummers smack the skins in this vintage dance short. It was made for the short-lived Cinebox film jukebox system sometime in the early 1960s. The Cinebox films all flaunt their over-the-top, kitsch aesthetic, but the use of settings and costumes to exoticise Craig and Holder remains deeply problematic.

An internationally renowned Trinidadian dancer and choreographer, the multi-talented Boscoe Holder also found fame as a painter, designer, visual artist and musician. He's often credited as the man who first brought limbo dancing to Britain. Fay Craig starred in at least three short films shot for the Cinebox system. She made an uncredited appearance in Basil Dearden's crime drama Sapphire and had a role as a nightclub stripper in Charles Saunders' B picture Jungle Street (1961).

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