Tunde's Film

Stepney
1973
Sound
43m

Tired of being hassled by the police and with no job opportunities, a group of teenage East End lads plan to rob a bank.

Filmed in 1970s East London, this rare, gritty drama deals with the trials faced by a group of young black teenagers. The film follows director Tunde Ikoli and his pals Colin, Micky and Taploe as they struggle to find work on the streets of pre-developed Tower Hamlets. Penniless and constantly harassed by the police, the boys decide to cut their losses and rob a bank. A potent, incisive slice of social realism, with music by Joan Armatrading.

Life in London's East End as experienced and recorded by a group of local teenagers. The story of two kids, Tunde and Hennessy, in trouble with the police after a fight in a youth club. They find themselves hemmed in by limited possibilities for work, and so they try the only escape route they can think of, robbing a bank.

Black British Filmmaking

A selection of shorts and features by black writers and directors, from milestones of the 60s and 70s to contemporary hits.

For much of the history of British film and TV, black stories were overseen by white filmmakers. By the 1960s, black writers and directors were demanding to tell their own stories, in their own way. This collection celebrates the work of black storytellers who have enriched our understanding of the black British experience. Landmark features like Horace Ové's Pressure (1975) and Menelik Shabazz's Burning an Illusion (1981) stand beside earlier milestones in short filmmaking by Lionel Ngakane and Lloyd Reckord, and 1990s work by Isaac Julien and Julian Henriques. And you'll find hits by leading lights in new black British cinema, including Noel Clarke, Destiny Ekaragha and Debbie Tucker Green. The collection also highlights the work of Ngozi Onwurah, who became the first black British woman director to get a UK theatrical release with her extraordinary debut feature Welcome II the Terrordome (1995), a controversial dystopian fable unavailable for many years.