Big City Stories: Black London's Film Heritage

Films from the BFI National Archive form an integral part of this vibrant new touring programme, launching at BFI Southbank on 12 April. Curated by June Givanni and Imruh Bakari, the project was funded by Film London and the UK Film Council's Digital Film Archive Fund, and was supported by an advisory group which included BFI curator Simon McCallum.

Big City Stories follows the city's African-Caribbean population through the last century: their changing lives and perceptions as they established their place among London's diverse cultures and communities. The selection includes images of London's black citizens from the very earliest years of cinema, alongside personal perspectives embodied in home movies, footage of key historical moments and fictional representations of Black London's stories.

The programme draws on a wide range of collections - including the private collections of black filmmakers - to reveal a new narrative about life in an expanding and ever-changing metropolis. The programme demonstrates the shifting and often contrasting perceptions of various sectors of British society at key moments, such as during WWII and in the post-Windrush 1950s, and in iconic areas for London's black presence, such as Brixton and Notting Hill.

A key resource for the project was the BFI Mediatheque, in particular its extensive 'Black Britain' and 'London Calling' collections, which are available for free viewing at all five Mediatheque sites. The curators' final selections ranged from 1920s footage of Cosmopolitan London to the recently rediscovered 1970s curio Death May Be Your Santa Claus, extracts of which will screen alongside a wide variety of archive footage sourced from across the capital.

Big City Stories will be available for bookings in cinemas, alternative venues, community groups, film societies, and membership organisations across the capital. For more information see www.blacklondonfilmheritage.org