Handsworth Songs (2006)
The Importance Of Being Lady Lucy (2007)
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Handsworth Songs (2006) The Importance Of Being Lady Lucy (2007) |
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Handsworth Songs and the Archival Image Whilst Handsworth Songs indulges no political perspectives, it is nevertheless important to look again at the act of 'rioting' and what the term and indeed the act, signified, over and above the generally accepted use of the word. In 1973 (in a song called Burnin' and Lootin') Bob Marley had named and identified the riot as a positive act of purification, redemption and political integrity. This audacious and profoundly empathetic act struck an international cord with fractious Black British youngsters and Jamaican ghetto sufferers alike. Thereafter, rioting would never be considered by many as being the negative, destructive and anarchic act that others, particularly the mainstream media and the forces of 'law and order' took it to be. The film's multiple strands, both aural and visual, combine to create a cinematic work of great depth and potency. Even setting aside, if we are able to, the images of violence that sporadically dominate the film, Handsworth Songs is by no means an easy or a comfortable piece of film-making with which to engage. The film requires the viewer to undertake an almost bewildering, frame-by-frame process of absorbing its often bold and unflinching nuances, and to critique, deconstruct and reconstruct the film's various cycles. No two viewings of the film can ever be the same, simply because of the marked and profound sense of fluidity that the filmmakers brought to every aspect of the project. Within the work the idea of meaning becomes fiendishly elusive; frame after frame throws up image, spectacle, and language that sits uncomfortably with the viewer and refuses to indulge any fixed meanings. Together with Brixton, Handsworth had, during the course of the 1970s, come to symbolise territory that represented the unmistakable emergence and presence of Black Britain. To be sure, Handsworth was, as mentioned, home to many people from the Commonwealth countries, and to their British-born/raised children. Significantly the neighbourhood had gained a special and particular place in the affections and empathies of younger Black British people. Steel Pulse had the measure of it when they sang (on their seminal 1978 Handsworth Revolution record) that "Handsworth means us, to Black people, Handsworth means us, to Black people". In the parlance of the time, along with areas such as Ladbroke Grove, St Paul's, and Brixton, Handsworth had achieved privileged 'frontline' status. Possibly the most iconic archival material used in Handsworth Songs is the footage of the pioneering 'Windrush generation' of Caribbean migrants. The film draws liberally from cinematic records of the modern-day Black presence in Britain, dating back to the years and decades immediately following the end of the Second World War. The bulk of these images consist of documentary and journalistic photographs and moving images of newly arrived Caribbean immigrants, either disembarking into seaport arrival halls, or waiting to be collected from boat-train transit terminals such as London Victoria station. Almost without exception, these images speak of an age when people dressed in their best clothes to travel, and to arrive. We see dapper suited young men and equally well-dressed young women. Nearly all of these people are wearing hats (without which, these people would have considered their dress to be incomplete). The messages from these photographs and newsreels carry a remarkable clarity: that these immigrants respect themselves, have full confidence in their own abilities to make good lives for themselves in 'the mother country', and have a corresponding confidence in the hospitality with which they expect to be treated. The complete version of this essay appeared in 'Ghosting: The Role of the Archive within Contemporary Artists' Film and Video. Picture This, 2006 |
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