Their impact and those of later generations had a profound effect on British culture and way of life. The Windrush presence brought vibrant colours, music, nightlife, fashion, style and later politics,sport and language, that would be incorporated into the British mainstream. They put the cool in Britannia. Unfortunately acknowledgements have been thin on the ground and seems to be little recognition that the relationship works both ways.

The coverage of the British media and television has reflected this silence, failing to acknowledge that British popular and 'high culture' culture has been influenced by the arrival of the Windrush generation. Channel 4, the champion of minority interests gave us zilch.The BBC gave us a documentary series and some fiction shorts. The absence of feature length fiction was glaring, that there are numerous, award winning novels telling our stories. Why did no one call upon the directors, scriptwriters, producers that our community contains? If they returned 50 years worth of licence fees that they've received from our community, that would be more than enough to fund a dozen brilliant black films and documentaries. At bfm we have been working to highlight this legacy in cinema. At our bfm Revival screenings presentations were made to Earl Cameron and Corinne Skinner-Carter, both of whom have been working in British cinema since the early 50's. Honorable mentions went to a number of their contemporaries, and behind the scenes verterans such as the agent Peal Connor were also lauded.

A special presentation was made to Roy Baker, the director of Flame in the Streets for making such a brave and significant film. The legacy of Black British directors has been relatively recent and only five feature films have been produced since Horace Ove's Pressure (1974). Contrast France with its supposedly less progressive race relations, where there is a longer history of film directors from Africa and the Caribbean. In front of the camera, there is a more substantial legacy in British films, going back as far as the silent era. The most successful Black actor Britain has produced is Earl Cameron, an actor whose career has spanned 19 films in 3 decades.

His career is remarkable, particularly in the light of the fact that he was working at a time, in the 50's to late 70's when attitudes were supposedly less enlightened. Ironically, in these enlightene times, there are hardly any British Black actors working in films now who routinely play leading roles as Earl Cameron was able to do. The few who do play major roles, (Delroy Lindo, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Adrian Lester, Thandie Newton, Aamon Walker,) have had to cross the Atlantic to find work. The absence of Black British film stars has a detrimental, knock on effect for writers, directors and producers who may want to use a Black actor but are told by financiers, sales agents, and distributors here that projects need to have name (i.e white) actors - they feel there are no Black actors who fit this category - apart from Lenny Henry.

Then of course, there is the argument which suggests that British cinema goers won't come out to see Black actors in lead roles. Earl Cameron's success and today's successes of The Crying Game, Secret and Lies, The Full Monty show this argument to be folly. A British film industry that only commands 30% of it's domestic audience in a good year, cannot afford to be stush or arrogant, as regards the talent it draws on.

Editor