Handsworth Songs + Finally Got the News

Handsworth Songs
Directed by John Akomfrah (1986)
61min, DCP

Directed by John Akomfrah and made through the Black Audio Film Collective–a pioneering group of independent Black British filmmakers and artists–Handsworth Songs is an experimental essayist collage of documentary footage and archival materials. It documents protests and riots which resulted from the conditions of Black people in Britain, highlighting unemployment, police violence and the question of belonging and diaspora rooted in colonization and empire. An explosive montage, it remains all too relevant. 

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Finally Got the News
Directed by Stewart Bird, Rene Lichtman & Peter Gessner (1970)
55min

Finally Got the News reveals the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers inside and outside the auto factories of Detroit. Through interviews with the members of the movement, film shot in auto plants, and footage of leafleting and picketing actions, the film documents their efforts to build an independent Black labor organization. Beginning with a historical montage that runs from the early days of slavery through the subsequent growth and organization of the working class, this forceful documentary focuses on the crucial role the Black worker plays in the American economy, while also addressing matters of education, gender, and capitalism.