Horace Ové, Cultural Icon

Abstract

Horace Ove is internationally known as one of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. His feature film Pressure (1976) is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the first black feature film to be made in the UK. It stars Herbert Norville, Norman Beaton, Sheila Scott-Wilkinson and Oscar James. In it, Ove follows three generations of a black family living in Britain - from the parents who arrived as part of the Windrush generation with their first son, who becomes part of the Black Power movement, to their younger, British-born son who struggles to find his place between the two cultures. Beyond that, Ove's career has produced a diverse range of films.Baldwin's Nigger (1969) was shot in the UK with James Baldwin and Dick Gregory. During the course of the film the two discuss and compare the social and political struggle of black people at the time in the UK and the US. His 1970 documentary Reggae was the first in-depth film on reggae music. Filmed at Wembley Stadium, it recorded the first reggae concert to be held in Britain. The film visually illustrates the social and political messages behind the music, and is narrated by the Jamaican writer and journalist, Andrew Salkey.Ove's King Carnival (1973) is acclaimed as the best documentary ever made on the history and festivities of Trinidad Carnival, which has become one of the major carnivals in the world and has spawned carnivals throughout the Caribbean and its diaspora including the Notting Hill Carnival, now the biggest street festival in Europe. The documentary Skateboard Kings (1978) provides an in-depth look at the skateboarding phenomenon at its height in the 1970s and features a young Tony Alva, Stacey Perralta, Jay Adams and the Dogtown Crew. Made for the BBC's World About Us series, it was a uniquely styled and groundbreaking documentary focusing on the tribal nature of the various groups involved in skateboarding at that time. Hole on Babylon (1979), produced for the BBC's Play for Today, was an adapted true story of two West Indians and an African holding up an Italian spaghetti house to finance an African studies programme for black British children after a refusal from the authorities. The film made an early use of cross-cutting archival news footage with dramatic sequences. Some of the actual restaurant staff were used as actors and the film was shot on the actual location. Ove himself lived in Italy for four years in the 1960s.In the early 1980s, Ove also directed the documentary Asian Arts, featuring a young Anish Kapoor. His film Who Shall We Tell? (1985) documented the Bhopal gas disaster, while Dabbawallahs, produced that same year, chronicles the existences of tiffin carriers of Bombay (now Mumbai) who endanger their lives daily delivering home-cooked lunches across the city by train, bike and on foot. Playing Away (1986), a cinematic feature written by Caryl Phillips, details a Brixton cricket team's journey to play an English county cricket side and the cultural clashes that ensue. The film stars Norman Beaton, Nicholas Farrell, Joe Marcell and Stefan Kalipha.Ove directed various episodes of the groundbreaking television series Empire Road (1978-79), which was the earliest attempt at addressing the multicultural society that existed in Britain. Ove made his mark on the series by taking it out of the studio and onto real street locations. It starred Norman Beaton, Joe Marcell and Rudolph Walker. He directed The Latchkey Children (1978-79), the first multiracial children's drama, for the UK's ITV network, and also directed an episode of The Professionals titled A Man Called Quinn, starring Steven Berkoff as an ex-secret service agent.In 1991 Ove directed The Orchid House, a four-part period drama set and shot on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Based on the novel by Dominican writer Phyllis Shand Allfrey, it tells the story of the decline of an old colonial family from the point of view of their black nanny, and stars Madge Sinclair, Elizabeth Hurley, Nigel Terry, Lenny James, Indra Ove and Frances Barber. …