Black British Women Filmmakers in the Digital Era: New Production Strategies and Re-Presentations of Black Womanhood

Emilie Herbert

doi:10.1515/culture-2018-0018

Abstract

Abstract The story of Black women in British mainstream cinema is certainly one of invisibility and misrepresentations, and Black women filmmakers have historically been placed at the margins of British film history. Up until the mid-1980s, there were no Black female directors in Britain. Pioneers like Maureen Blackwood, Martina Attille and Ngozi Onwurah have actively challenged stereotypical representations of Black womanhood, whilst asserting their presence in Black British cinema, often viewed as a male territory. In the 2010s, it seems that the British film industry remains mostly white and masculine. But the new millennium has brought a digital revolution that has enabled a new generation of Black women filmmakers to work within alternative circuits of production and distribution. New strategies of production have emerged through the use of online crowdfunding, social media and video-sharing websites. These shifts have opened new opportunities for Black women filmmakers who were until then often excluded from traditional means of exhibition and distribution. I will examine these strategies through the work of Moyin Saka, Jaha Browne and Cecile Emeke, whose films have primarily contributed to the re-presentation of Black womanhood in popular culture.

Highlights

In May 2017, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London hosted for the second time the Black Film, British Cinema conference
Black women filmmakers have historically been placed at the margins of British film history, pioneers such as Maureen Blackwood, Martina Attille and Ngozi Onwurah have since the late 1980s actively sought out to challenge stereotypical representations of Black women found in mainstream white cinema, whilst asserting their presence in Black British cinema, often viewed as a male territory
We have seen that if it remains difficult for Black British women filmmakers to enter the mainstream British film industry, those who have succeeded do not necessarily find opportunities to develop narratives centred around Black womanhood

Summary

Introduction

In May 2017, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London hosted for the second time the Black Film, British Cinema conference New strategies of production have emerged through the use of online crowdfunding, social media and video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Vimeo These shifts have opened up new opportunities for Black filmmakers who were until often excluded from traditional means of exhibition and distribution in Britain, and have “altered various power relations involved in producing and accessing on-screen images of Black people” (Sobande, Watching Me Watching You 656). If we listen to Emma Dabiri’s plea (backed by Black British feminist pioneer Heidi Safia Mirza (Mirza and Gunartnam) that “the visibility of black women in representations of mainstream Black British culture is such that you might be forgiven for thinking we are an endangered species” (Dabiri), this quite low correlation between the presence of Black female filmmakers in the mainstream film and television industries and quantitative/ qualitative representations of Black womanhood is at the very least puzzling

A United Kingdom Insecure

Conclusion