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6 million pounds of Black film history ignored by @BFI British Film Institute
The above advert for BFI Inclusion Co-ordinator is incredibly revealing as everything listed was already being done, for 17 years, by the all volunteer African Odysseys Steering Committee.
The Committee consisted of grassroots Black activists who were already hosting educational, anti-racist, African diaspora films, in museums, youth clubs and cinemas before 2007.Images of Black Women for example, was showing films in 2005 HERE
The 9 member committee did everything required in this job description plus advertising consultancy, curation and programming since 2007. By the BFI’s own measure, this means that they contributed, 9 times £40,545 per year, times 17 years or £6,203,385 to the British Film Institute.
So why would the taxpayer-funded, white run, charity cancel African Odysseys programme created by Black volunteers in order to ‘promote diversity and save money’ as quoted by Stuart Brown Director of Programme, Distribution and Acquisition ?
David Somerset who co-founded the programme when he first started work at BFI Southbank in 2007, brought this collaborative ethos with him from his previous role at Museum of Docklands. The idea for African Odysseys did not come from the all-white executive team who only got a Black member in 2021. 81-year-old Harry Cumberbatch MBE who was behind the London Sugar and Slavery gallery at Docklands museum can state that Somerset had a track record of reaching out to marginalised groups.
Senior management at BFI consistently failed to support African Odysseys. BFI refused to pay for a trailer for 17 years, the Committee made their own HERE
Meanwhile BFI Flare enjoyed a BFI trailer every year for the last ten HERE
BFI Flare has 8 staff to run it while African Odysseys has no staff at all
BFI magazine Sight and Sound editor Mike Williams still cannot explain why his maggzine has never done a feature on African Odysseys in 17 years, despite being asked to via Justin Johnson, Stuart Brown, Jason Wood and CEO Ben Roberts, in writing numerous times, since 2020.
BFI frequently refused to film African Odysseys Q&A sessions forcing David Somerset to rope in his brother, to film/edit crucial episodes of Black British history like this event to celebrate the banned film Blacks Britannica HERE The quality of the preserved information is incredible. It exists only because of Somerset's brother who volunteered his time while the BFI 'had no money' despite their massive resources.
Without even basic support, the all-volunteer body was able to fill up 450 seat cinemas every year for 17 years, bring paying customers to the venue, increase the footfall into the BFI’s restaurant/bookshops as well as donate £6 million of free labour to the institution. However, the overwhelmingly white, BFI senior management, supported by Governor Jaye Hunt and CEO Ben Roberts:
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Refused to talk to the committee for three months on orders of Stuart Brown
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Cancelled the only meeting with the committee 2 hours before it was due to start thanks to Stuart Brown and Jason Wood BFI Leader of Audience Development Strategies HERE
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Totally ignored 17,000 audience members who petitioned to keep African Odysseys going HERE
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Failed to state what the African Odysseys budget was despite BFI statements about transparency HERE
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Refused to do a legally required Race Equality Impact Assessment to discover the impact of cancelling the popular African Odysseys series. Stuart Brown originally agreed to do one then reversed his decision HERE
- Refused to meet with Hollywood super-producer Terry Jervis who was willing to discuss sponsorship once the African Odysseys budget was revealed.
17,000 people and more from the community would like to know :
- Why every other strand of diversity at the BFI; Flare, Women, Seniors, Disability are all going strong but the African Odysseys strand is not happening
- How does the £127 million BFI have no money to continue African Odysseys while the Steering Committee, with no funds, has shown 6 films at four different cinemas in the last 5 months.
- Why have BFI staff been told not to mention African Odysseys on stage?
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Why is the BFI suddenly giving away free tickets and free drinks for Black Debutantes films when African Odysseys films sold out in advance?
- How can Stuart Brown and the 88% white BFI executive team justify all of the above BFI behaviours
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How can the Executive managers ignore the advice of 20 academic experts on race relations who signed the petition like Professor Paul Gilroy, Dame Professor Elizabeth Anionwu, Professor Matt Smith, Professor Deidre Osborne, Professor Gus John etc, only to ‘appoint’ a single academic to advise on Black films and culture when the BFI already had 9 volunteers with a fantastic 17 year track record and 17,000 supporters who stated they wanted more African Odysseys films?
- Who decided on this paid ‘appointment’, when, and why was there no open, advertised, democratic recruitment process ?
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How is there suddenly money for this brand new appointment when the public was repeatedly told by Stuart Brown/Ben Roberts there was no money for African Odysseys?
Contrast the above behaviour with what BFI CEO Ben Roberts said in June 2020.
We will share resources and experiences openly and lift up and engage with the people and organisations who are already doing the work. I welcome industry colleagues and supporters to get in touch with us and take action.
This is the same BFI who has consistently not engaged with the Black community, and for a whole year, refused to even answer these 8 simple questions HERE
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