Partner Offer: Windrush Caribbean Film Festival 2020 ends 8th Nov: Watch Hard Stop, The Story of Sam King, Hero & more | Get complimentary tickets here

It is now 72 years since 500 West Indians embarked on the historic “windrush” journey to make a massive contribution to rebuild war-torn Britain. But alas in the last couple of years those huge contributions to the UK have been radically questioned by government mistreatment which has resulted in the Windrush scandal. Main image credit ( Producer ANGELA FERREIRA (Host) of Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle (UK, 2019) and Race and Representation strand ).

The numbers are appalling as thousands of people have had their lives ruined, by a series of blunders in the shape of wrongful deportation of dozens which lead to the alleged deaths of many, not just in the UK but those who had been deported back to the Caribbean.

ALT AFRICA is proud to be a partner of the 1st Windrush Caribbean Film Festival an annual event, with an aim to both celebrate and educate on the culture and contributions to Britain of the Windrush generation and their descendants, their impact on British life, racism, colonialism and immigration; through screenings, talkbacks and a digital storytelling project to create 10 new short films each year. The last few days of the festival run from today Nov 6, ending on Remembrance Day 8th of November. ALT is giving away a limited number of complimentary tickets: so sign up as soon as you can. All the films outlined below celebrate Black British and Caribbean filmmakers.

These films include: Tonight 6 Nov: Hard Stop (George Amponsah, UK, 2015) 85 min, Nov 7 Jamaican Men: A Collector’s Choice I Art Exhibition July 2012 London (Dionne Walker, UK, 2012) 9 minute, Iciline Brown, our Windrush Generation Story (Monica D. Brown, UK, 2016) 10 min, HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Ulric Cross (Frances-Anne Solomon, UK, 2019) 110 minutes, Nov 8 – Windrush Child (Rainbow Collective Animation Club, The Green, UK, 2018) 2 minutes, Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle (UK, 2019), Reunion (Frances-Anne Solomon, UK, 1993) 30 minutes, Rootical: An Audience with Charlie Phillips (Nike Hatzidimou, UK, 2006) 25 minutes…..

Date and Time

Fri, Nov 6, 2020, 7:00 PM GMT

Harold Phillips – Lord Woodbine (Lana Hughes, UK, 2020) 7 minutes

Hard Stop (George Amponsah, UK, 2015) 85 min

Hard Stop is an intimate documentary revealing the story, away from all press coverage, of Mark Duggan’s friends and family following his death during a ‘hard stop’ by the police. For 28 months, director George Amponsah filmed around Broadwater Farm, where Duggan grew up. We follow childhood friends, Marcus and Kurtis, closely as they attempt to get on with their lives, look for a job, talk about the discrimination they experience on a daily basis.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wcff-2020-our-stories-tickets-122731530311

Date and Time

Sat, Nov 7, 2020, 4:30 PM GMT

Jamaican Men: A Collector’s Choice I Art Exhibition July 2012 London (Dionne Walker, UK, 2012) 9 minutes

With close links to the parliamentary group that lobbied the government during the height of the Windrush scandal, this film features the interaction between Jamaica through art, and an interesting mixed audience made of African, British and Caribbean people.

Iciline Brown, our Windrush Generation Story (Monica D. Brown, UK, 2016) 10 min

A successful Windrush story about fighting to win.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wcff-2020-race-representation-tickets-122733179243

Date and Time

Sat, Nov 7, 2020, 7:00 PM GMT

HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Ulric Cross (Frances-Anne Solomon, UK, 2019) 110 minutes

HERO is the story of Ulric Cross, who in 1941, left his small island home in Trinidad to seek his fortune, and became the RAF’s most decorated West Indian airman of WWII. His life took a dramatically different course when he followed the call of history and joined the independence movements sweeping Africa in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wcff-2020-hero-tickets-122735181231

Date and Time

Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 2:00 PM GMT

Windrush Child (Rainbow Collective Animation Club, The Green, UK, 2018) 2 minutes

A tribute to the Windrush generation by our students in Peckham and Nunhead. “Windrush Child”, a beautiful animated adaptation of John Agard’s poem, created by students aged 6-11 year old students at Rainbow Collective Animation Club in Peckham, London.

Focus Claudia Jones (Joyce Fraser, Zoom Presentation, UK, 2020) 11 minutes

Filmed theatre enactment on the life of Claudia Jones 2020. A new play by the Black Heroes Foundation.

Joyce Fraser Founder of the Black Heroes Foundation and writer of Claudia Jones

Thanks For Coming (Daisy Jones, 2019) 11 minutes

Thanks for Coming takes place in a nearby future where a smartly dressed narrator appears on a tropical set and takes us back to the events of The Windrush Scandal, where ultimately the audience is warned not to let history repeat itself.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wcff-2020-windrush-women-tickets-122738009691

Date and Time

Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 4:00 PM GMT

Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle (UK, 2019)

Monologues that reveal the hopes, desires, achievements, shattered dreams and broken promises of a single fictionalised family over four generations.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wcff-2020-soon-gone-a-windrush-chronicle-tickets-122743676641

Date And Time

Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 7:00 PM GMT

Reunion (Frances-Anne Solomon, UK, 1993) 30 minutes

In 1943, 300 middle-class “coloured” women from across the West Indies were recruited to the ATS, a branch of the British Army. This film documents for the first time the contribution of these women to WW2.

7:30 PM – PAULETTE WILSON AWARD

The Paulette Wilson Windrush Award, named after the prominent activist who was wrongly detained by the Home Office, went on to become one of the faces of the Windrush scandal justice campaign and died in July, will be given to an individual who has been instrumental in advancing the narrative to achieve justice for the Windrush generation.

PATRICK VERNON (Host)

Patrick Vernon OBE is social commentator, campaigner and cultural historian. With FRANCES-ANNE SOLOMON (Guest FRANCES-ANNE SOLOMON is a trailblazer in the film and television industry, and an award-winning filmmaker, producer, curator and entrepreneur, Garry Stewart is the Founder of Recognize Black Heritage & Culture. They are a community based social enterprise providing a bridge to the African Caribbean community, Patricia Keiko Hamzahee FRSA (Guest) After some 20 years in investment banking and financial communications,Patricia now helps social enterprises attract private capital and advises private capital providers on their responsible investment strategies through her consultancy Integriti Capital and Joy Coker Editor and Founder of start-up www.alt-africa.com and bespoke print newspaper Alt A Review, Joy is prominent in pushing diversity in the arts through creating a platform for the creative industries to highlight diversity and inclusion in the UK’s top institutions via their programming.

8:30 PM – IN CONVERSATION WITH CHARLIE PHILLIPS

Rootical: An Audience with Charlie Phillips (Nike Hatzidimou, UK, 2006) 25 minutes

This is the story of Charlie Phillips, an Afro Caribbean photographer who documented the social implications of immigration in the 1950’s and 1960’s in Notting Hill. Charlie has experienced much ignorance with regards to the importance of his work. The working class seems to be excluded from the art world. In discussion with Benjamin Zephaniah and the curator of the Museum of London, they get to the bottom of that issue.