Alexandra Park Pageant, 27 June 1970

From the collection of

North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University

Established in 1977, the North West Film Archive preserves moving images made in or about the North West of England for the education and enjoyment of the region’s people. Part of Manchester Metropolitan University Library’s Cultural Collections, and based within Manchester Central Library’s Archives+ partnership, we are a specialist resource dedicated to saving and growing our region’s rich filmed history.

Alexandra Park Pageant, 27 June 1970

North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University
Moss Side
1970-06-27
Silent
8m

The beginning of a Mancunian tradition - could this be the first Moss Side Carnival?

All traditions must start somewhere, and in this fascinating film, local people come together on a wet summer day in Alexandra Park in Manchester for what is arguably the first Moss Side Carnival. Now one of the largest community events in the North of England, this early Carnival is packed with floats, fashion, football and dancing, plus Rita Fairclough from Coronation Street lending her support.

Black Lives

Portraits of public and private lives against the shifting social climate of 20th century Britain.

Black communities, like many Global majority groups, have long been ill-served by a mainstream British media accustomed to reflecting predominantly white, middle-class lives - a problem entrenched in the second half of the 20th century with the rise of television. Yet a rich tapestry of work from across the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction, film and TV, made for (though not always by) black people, does exist. This selection contains many surprises – some joyous, some sobering, some heartbreaking – and highlights the often painfully slow progress in addressing negative representations and stereotypes on screen. Impassioned and sometimes violent dispatches from the front line in the fight for racial equality can be found here, but so too can records of progress: in the pioneers breaking new ground in culture, politics and sport, and in the more mundane glimpses of everyday life. And this story is not just London’s story: the selection takes a journey around Britain, to a Nigerian wedding in 1960s Cornwall, an ‘African village’ in Essex and a Caribbean restaurant opening in West Bromwich; Newcastle