This week we are sharing Small Axe by British film director, screen writer, producer and visual artist Steve McQueen, an anthology series that explores Britain’s Caribbean heritage.
The anthology tells vivid stories of hard-won victories in the face of racism, and consists of five films each about the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s.
The first instalment, Mangrove, centres a courtroom clash between London authorities and a group of protestors against police harassment and brutality in and around the West Indian restaurant that gives the film its title. Lovers Rock, named for the reggae grooves that infuse its soundtrack, is an immersive portrait of a joyous night at a house party. Red, White & Blue stars John Boyega as Leroy Logan, who joined the London police force in hopes of helping to reform it. And Alex Wheatle traces the early life and legal struggles of Wheatle years before he became a successful young-adult author.
Education, which completes the quintet, is the story of a boy named Kingsley, whose difficulty with reading has him reassigned to a school for the “educationally subnormal”
The anthology’s title comes from an African proverb popularized in Jamaica by Bob Marley’s eponymous 1973 song (“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe”)
“(The genesis for telling these five specific stories) started many years ago. It was one of those things where I wanted to see these movies. I wanted to see stories that weren’t available. And I thought, Well, I’ll have to make them.” (Steve McQueen, Rolling Stones 2021)
“It was important for me that these films were broadcast on the BBC, because it has accessibility to everyone in the country. These are national histories.” (Steve McQueen, NY Times 2021)