Watch this col­lec­tion of six short films about Black Britain

As part of their Black His­to­ry Month sea­son, Chan­nel 4 are show­cas­ing new work from young and emerg­ing film­mak­ers around the theme of ​‘Black Britain’, as com­mis­sioned by the love­ly folk at Ran­dom Acts. We’re thrilled to be able to present all six films below, along with short state­ments from the peo­ple who made them.

Syn­op­sis: An art film that blends Grime with sur­re­al­ism and explores the theme of iden­ti­ty in Grime’s for­ma­tive years cir­ca 2003, where a para­nor­mal enti­ty rep­re­sents the dark exter­nal forces that chose to influ­ence and manip­u­late the genre.

Direc­tor Dumas Had­dad: ​“The film is a warped love let­ter to Grime’s for­ma­tive years. I grew up around it’s incep­tion and was cap­ti­vat­ed by its sounds and DIY nature as a cul­ture formed with the scene blos­som­ing through skill and infec­tious pas­sion. Then a host of com­mer­cial enti­ties, with lit­tle to zero care for the scene, swam in with neg­a­tive inten­tions, which led to grime’s detri­ment; so I was keen to cre­ate a film that touched on the nature of this sin­is­ter influ­ence. It blends the genre with sur­re­al­ism and I was excit­ed about explor­ing new ways to work with the genre, away from some of the more com­mon tropes.”

Syn­op­sis: A dance film that explores the com­plex­i­ty of iden­ti­ties and the ever evolv­ing state of being that defines who we are.

Direc­tor Antoine Marc: ​“Work­ing with Ran­dom Acts allowed me to engage with a much larg­er audi­ence. It’s been a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to share the pas­sion of film and dance.. The dance film With­er por­trays the strug­gle of acknowl­edg­ing the diver­si­ty that com­pose our being. A path that could lead to soli­tude. There is this idea of releas­ing expec­ta­tions and accept­ing the com­plex lay­ers that define who we are, some­how hav­ing dif­fer­ences lead­ing to commonality.”

Syn­op­sis: A sci-fi visu­al art doc­u­men­tary that looks at Dark Mat­ter through the unseen pres­ence of black women in sci­ence whilst chan­nel­ing the spir­it of Vera Rubin (the woman who searched for and dis­cov­ered Dark Matter).

Direc­tor Adeye­mi Michael: ​“Dark Mat­ter is a state­ment on the posi­tion of the omnipresent nature of black­ness. When I was com­mis­sioned to make this film by The Sci­ence Gallery & Ran­dom Acts I saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring two worlds togeth­er about sci­ence and race. We are all born into Dark Mat­ter but only some of us see it. Using this as a metaphor I hope the film serves as a tool to recog­nise those that go unseen in all walks of life, from those women who work in sci­ence or in any oth­er fields and go unac­knowl­edged. The film is in homage to the late Astronomer Vera Rubin who iden­ti­fied the sci­en­tif­ic pres­ence of Dark Matter.”

Syn­op­sis: From young people’s lau­re­ate There­sa Lola, an alle­go­ry for depres­sion told through a girl’s unique rela­tion­ships with the rain.

Writer There­sa Lola: ​“Every­thing Feels Like Water means so much to me, watch­ing it back brings a joy­ous relief. It was impor­tant to send the mes­sage on men­tal health with­out preach­ing but using a cre­ative depth I felt would be more mem­o­rable to the audience.”

Syn­op­sis: An exper­i­men­tal film cel­e­brat­ing the life and career of pho­tog­ra­ph­er and artist Aja­mu X, and using him as a con­duit to explore the black British gay sex­u­al experience.

Direc­tor Stephen Isaac-Wil­son: ​“This film was a chance for me to lis­ten to, learn from and col­lab­o­rate with a black British gay man in his fifties. I’m so grate­ful that RA made that possible.”

Syn­op­sis: Por­traits shot through mir­rors, with a voiceover of women and non-bina­ry peo­ple dis­cussing the inter­sec­tion of their iden­ti­ties, being queer/non-bina­ry and peo­ple of colour.

Direc­tor Anna Fearon: ​“The film for me is a moment of reflec­tion for your­self rather than for oth­ers. The act of look­ing in the mir­ror is a pri­vate moment with your­self, of recog­nis­ing your­self. As a queer per­son of colour you’re sub­ject­ed to pre­judge­ments, mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion and lack there of. To me The Muse is about self acknowl­edge­ment and of defin­ing our own nar­ra­tives. It’s just a frag­ment of a much wider dis­course of iden­ti­ty and intersectionality.”