Saved events

Handsworth Songs (18*) + shorts

The Television Will Be Revolutionised

Handsworth Songs

A trio of films by left, feminist and black workshops, including Handsworth Songs, the celebrated film essay on race and disorder in Britain.

Some of the most successful workshops emerged from black and ethnic minority filmmakers, among them the trailblazing Black Audio Film Collective. Their Handsworth Songs premiered on Channel 4 in 1986, a year after the riots in Birmingham and London. Incorporating newsreel and archival material, the film’s multi-stranded narrative invites us to consider how mainstream news reduces complex events to problematic stereotypes.

Also screening, Red Skirts on Clydeside was produced by the all-women Sheffield Film Co-op,about the rent strikes led by women in Glasgow in 1915; and Launch, by Newcastle-based Amber Film Workshop, who document the construction of the World Union oil tanker by focussing on heavy machinery, steam and noise: the scale of the endeavour, the solidarity of the workplace, and the community who depend on it.

Handsworth Songs
UK 1986 Black Audio Film Collective 61 min

Red Skirts on Clydeside
UK 1984 Sheffield Film Co-Op 40 min 16mm 

Please note: the 16mm print is lightly colour-faded

Launch
UK 1974 Amber Films 10 min


*This film has been locally classified by the City of London Corporation

Photo of Barbican Cinema red seats

Podcast: Cinema

Subscribe to our fortnightly podcast for interviews and discussion about our film programme, from the iconic to the independent, art-house to the award-winning - plus our incredible archive of ScreenTalks.

Available on iTunes, Spotify and Acast

Barbican Cinema 3