Sunday 16 January 2011
Diversity and Film
http://www.diversityinfilm.org.uk/resources/timeline/#1950s
In 1958 the Institute of Race Relations was established and Claudia Jones, one of Britain’s’ key black leaders, founded and edited the West Indian Gazette. That same year there were race riots in Nottingham and Notting Hill, and Kelso Cochrane, a West Indian carpenter, was murdered in Notting Hill by white youths. In 1959 the launch of a campaign in Britain to boycott South African goods led to the founding of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. An indoor event at St Pancras Town Hall in London was the beginning of Notting Hill Carnival. It took to the streets in the 1960s. In 1958, in the world of theatre, Errol John’s play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Royal Court Theatre, London) was the first major British production of the work of a black dramatist. That same year Edric Connor became the first black British actor to play a Shakespearean role when he was cast as Gower in Pericles at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford.
In the post-war years, with settlers coming to Britain from Africa and the Caribbean, liberal-thinking film makers began to explore racial conflict in Britain’s inner cities. In the first of these, Pool of London (1950), Bermuda’s Earl Cameron made his screen debut as a Jamaican sailor on shore leave in London. Earl said: “It was a fabulous part and I appeared all through the picture.” Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Earl gave memorable performances in a number of British films, including Sapphire (1959), Flame in the Streets (1961) and Guns at Batasi (1964). Actress Nadia Cattouse often worked with Earl: “We [black actors in Britain] had the highest regard for him. We all liked and admired him. He worked all the time, and gave each role tremendous dignity and humanity.” Earl’s most recent screen appearances have included The Queen (2007) with Helen Mirren. Says Earl: “My experiences of theatre, television and films have been wonderful. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I don’t look at myself as a great actor. Others can judge that.”
In the post-war years, with settlers coming to Britain from Africa and the Caribbean, liberal-thinking film makers began to explore racial conflict in Britain’s inner cities. In the first of these, Pool of London (1950), Bermuda’s Earl Cameron made his screen debut as a Jamaican sailor on shore leave in London. Earl said: “It was a fabulous part and I appeared all through the picture.” Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Earl gave memorable performances in a number of British films, including Sapphire (1959), Flame in the Streets (1961) and Guns at Batasi (1964). Actress Nadia Cattouse often worked with Earl: “We [black actors in Britain] had the highest regard for him. We all liked and admired him. He worked all the time, and gave each role tremendous dignity and humanity.” Earl’s most recent screen appearances have included The Queen (2007) with Helen Mirren. Says Earl: “My experiences of theatre, television and films have been wonderful. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I don’t look at myself as a great actor. Others can judge that.”
Race: Scienc'e Last Taboo
The word ‘race’ was first used to refer to humans during the age of exploration, when Europeans discovered that the world was populated by different peoples. Have attitudes to race changed since then?
Earl Cameron
From the moment he first appeared on screen, as a young Jamaican in Ealing Studios' underrated Pool of London (d. Basil Dearden, 1951), Earl Cameron brought a breath of fresh air to the British film industry's stuffy depictions of race relations. Often cast as a sensitive outsider, Cameron gave his characters a grace and moral authority that often surpassed the films' compromised liberal agendas.
Born in Bermuda in 1917, Cameron first arrived in Britain on the eve of the Second World War, working in the Merchant Navy. In 1942, he talked his way into a part in a West End production of Chu Chin Chow, which in turn led to training with the granddaughter of black American actor Ira Aldridge. Cutting his teeth in repertory theatre, he attempted to break into films with unsuccessful auditions for Men of Two Worlds (d. Thorold Dickinson, 1946) and Cry, the Beloved Country (d. Zoltan Korda, 1952).
Born in Bermuda in 1917, Cameron first arrived in Britain on the eve of the Second World War, working in the Merchant Navy. In 1942, he talked his way into a part in a West End production of Chu Chin Chow, which in turn led to training with the granddaughter of black American actor Ira Aldridge. Cutting his teeth in repertory theatre, he attempted to break into films with unsuccessful auditions for Men of Two Worlds (d. Thorold Dickinson, 1946) and Cry, the Beloved Country (d. Zoltan Korda, 1952).
His break came in 1950 when cold-calling an Ealing casting director won him the part of Johnny in Pool of London. Made in the wake of Ealing's hugely successful The Blue Lamp (d. Dearden, 1950), it was ostensibly a diamond-heist caper, heightened by the documentary authenticity of its location photography. One of the first British films to deal with mixed-race romance, it also placed Cameron's Johnny at its moral centre, his performance the most naturalistic amongst the ensemble of deceivers, crooks and cheats. The film was a hit, as was Cameron.
But despite great reviews, Cameron's success didn't lead to stardom and he found little work without a studio contract. Filling his time with bit parts and cameos, Cameron's struggle reveals the lack of opportunity for black actors during the 1950s. Not only were there few black characters in the mainstream industry, all roles on offer were race specific.
Saturday 15 January 2011
Immigration and Britian in the 1950s
Irish plight eluded to in Sapphire
The onset of mass immigration from India, Pakistan and the Caribbean in the late 1940s and the 1950s coincided with the dismantling of the British Empire, and the decline of Britain's global status. Immigration became the focus for the debate about these broader shifts. While policy makers welcomed the influx of new labour, there was at the same time considerable unease about the impact that such immigration may have on traditional concepts of Britishness. As a Colonial Office report of 1955 observed, 'a large coloured community as a noticeable feature of our social life would weaken... the concept of England or Britain to which people of British stock throughout the Commonwealth are attached.' These fears translated themselves into a concern about the need to control immigration. Immigration controls were seen, not as a means of matching immigrants to jobs, but of preventing the presence of too many non-white immigrants from tarnishing Britain's racial identity.
1948 - The boat Windrush brings 492 Jamaicans to the UK – thousands more follow
Immigration from Caribbean encouraged to help rebuild post-war Britain
Immigration from Caribbean encouraged to help rebuild post-war Britain
1950s and 60s - Settlers from other new Commonwealth nations arrive – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
A Taste of Honey
This image from the 1961 film, A Taste of Honey, shows the central character, Jo (Rita Tushingham), with her lover, a black sailor called Jimmy (Paul Danquah), against the backdrop of Salford's industrial skyline. Adapted from Shelagh Delaney's 'kitchen sink' play, the film shows a British working class teenager struggling to cope with an alcoholic mother. The film broke new ground at the time, showing a mixed-race affair, an illegitimate baby and a gay man who set up home with mother and child.
Black and Asian people faced varying degrees of hostility and racial prejudice in postwar Britain. During the 1950s, non-white immigration increased considerably, mainly from the Caribbean, India and Pakistan. The British Nationality Act of 1948 gave all Commonwealth citizens free entry into Britain, and in the same year the ss Empire Windrush brought almost 500 West Indians from Jamaica, all intent on starting new lives in Britain. During the Second World War, thousands of Caribbean men and women served in the armed forces and had been brought up to regard Britain as 'the mother country'.
However, their reception on arrival was mixed and many people suffered open racism.
Surveys conducted in the mid-1960s revealed that four out of five British people felt that 'too many immigrants had been let into the country'. In 1968, the politician Enoch Powell made his so-called 'Rivers of Blood' speech, to a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham. Powell referred to a member of the public who wanted to emigrate, saying 'in this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man'. Powell advocated a reduction of immigration and encouragement for people to return to the countries from which they had come. He also pointed out the differences between Britain and America, where the African American population had its roots in slavery.
Although racism in postwar Britain took on a very different form, many of the relationships of power and status based on colour had their origins in slavery and colonisation under the British Empire. The legacies of that period are still evident in institutional racism that continues today
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Rough Catalogue
This is all the research I have in my folder - I need to read through and see if they have anything that I will reference in my real presentation
Books
'The Spectacle of the Other' (Need to get name of book, author, publisher and year!)
'Miscegenation' and the perils of 'passing' in Fear of the Drak, Lola Young, Routledge, 1996
Sex, Class and Realism, John Hill, BFI Publishing, 1986
Race and Mixed Race, Naomi Zack, Temple University Press, 1993
Black Metropolis, White England in Modern Time (eds) Mica Nava & Alan O'Shea, Routledge, 1996
British Genres, Marcia Landy, Princeton University Press, 1991
Pleasure, Media and Identity in Investigating Audience, A. Ruddock, Routledge, 2007
Race and Racism in Britain, John Solomos, Macmillan Press Ltd, 1989
There Ain't No Black in th Union Jack, Paul Gilroy, Routlegde, 1992
Race in Britain (eds) Charles Husband, Hutchinson & Co, 1982
Black British, White British, Dilip Hiro, Grafton Books, 1971
Black and British, David Bygott, Oxford University Press, 1992
Journals
White, Richard Dyer (Screen, Vol 29/4), 1988
The British Social Problem Film: 'Violent Playground' and Sapphire', John Hill (Screen, Vol 26/1) 19??
Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance, Manthia Diawara (Screen, Vol 29/4) 1988
Representation and British 'Racial Problem' Films, Lola Young (Women: Cultural Review, Vol2/1) 19??
Internet
Books
'The Spectacle of the Other' (Need to get name of book, author, publisher and year!)
'Miscegenation' and the perils of 'passing' in Fear of the Drak, Lola Young, Routledge, 1996
Sex, Class and Realism, John Hill, BFI Publishing, 1986
Race and Mixed Race, Naomi Zack, Temple University Press, 1993
Black Metropolis, White England in Modern Time (eds) Mica Nava & Alan O'Shea, Routledge, 1996
British Genres, Marcia Landy, Princeton University Press, 1991
Pleasure, Media and Identity in Investigating Audience, A. Ruddock, Routledge, 2007
Race and Racism in Britain, John Solomos, Macmillan Press Ltd, 1989
There Ain't No Black in th Union Jack, Paul Gilroy, Routlegde, 1992
Race in Britain (eds) Charles Husband, Hutchinson & Co, 1982
Black British, White British, Dilip Hiro, Grafton Books, 1971
Black and British, David Bygott, Oxford University Press, 1992
Journals
White, Richard Dyer (Screen, Vol 29/4), 1988
The British Social Problem Film: 'Violent Playground' and Sapphire', John Hill (Screen, Vol 26/1) 19??
Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance, Manthia Diawara (Screen, Vol 29/4) 1988
Representation and British 'Racial Problem' Films, Lola Young (Women: Cultural Review, Vol2/1) 19??
Internet
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