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Racial inequality @BFI British Film Institute
We need to embody the change we want to see, and be accountable as a public institution, looking like and reflecting the public we serve…
..the status quo in the film community is undoubtedly still a system that privileges whiteness, and it has persisted for too long..
We will be transparent in how we report who we employ, recognising that a global ‘diversity’ average can hide a lack of senior POC.
Ben Roberts, BFI CEO in his own words 17 June 2020
Some of the 8 questions the BFI has refused to answer for over a year are:
A. Why does BFI Flare have eight times more staff than African Odysseys?
B. Why has Flare received a BFI-produced trailer annually for 10 years, while African Odysseys has been denied one for 17 years?
C. What is the budget for African Odysseys?
D. What is the racial composition of BFI’s Sight & Sound staff by rank and length of service?
E. Why has Sight & Sound excluded African Odysseys for 17 years despite its significance?
The refusal to answer simple questions is the exact opposite of 'transparency and accountability'. There are no Black people on the BFI governors board and there is only one Black person on the 88% white executive team, five years after 2020 when there were none at all.
BFI’s Sight and Sound magazine edited by Mike Williams, mentions African Odysseys less than ten times in 17 years despite African Odysseys being a monthly programme with events that regularly sold out the 450 seat cinema at Southbank. Sight and Sound has 156,000 followers on Twitter. It is a medium for spreading information about the BFI and it activities.
The decades of race discrimination African Odysseys was subjected to are exemplified by the fact that none of the events below were given a feature article of 750 words or more in Sight and Sound.
Terry Jervis from Hackney to Hollywood, 24th February 2024
Jervis, a child of Windrush pioneers went from playing on Hackney bombsites, to producing TV shows with audiences of 4 billion. As one of the few Black executives at BBC in the 1990s, he introduced/produced shows like: The Real Mccoy, Top Gear, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Beyond the Beat. He’s worked with Michael Jackson, Patti Labelle, Lenny Henry, the Williams sisters, Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones, Jazzy B, Diana Ross, Oprah Winfrey, Clarence Avant, Public Enemy, LL Cool J and many more. His 40 year track record in media is incredible. He recently sealed a deal where Bentley and Rolls Royce collaborated to produce a unique car made with metal from the engines of World war 2 fighter aircraft flown by Black pilots. He worked with Marvel on the Black Panther animated series. He also designed a spaceship.
Jervis ,who smuggled films out of Apartheid South Africa for the ANC and broke countless racial barriers in media, paved the way for people like Steve McQueen. He is also a two-time cancer survivor.
African Odysseys introduced Jervis to the BFI .He was responsible for bringing tens of thousands of pounds sponsorship to the BFI’s Black Star programme in 2016.
The February event required weeks of preparation, archive research and rehearsal. The trailer for this African Odysseys event was filmed at the BFI and can be seen HERE
This is the queue of people wating to sign Jervis' south London superhero book ‘Spirit of the Pharoah’ in the BFI Blue room after the event HERE
Terry Jervis/African Odysseys and the above achievements were not considered worthy of a 1000 word article or a front page by Sight and Sound. To see six more examples including James Baldwin, Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney etc click HERE
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