Handsworth songs 1986 film biography

Handsworth Songs was made for the Channel 4 series Britain: The Lie of the Land. The film went on win seven international awards including the BFI John Grierson Award for Best Documentary.

The techniques for which Black Audio Film Collective became recognised are already apparent: a multi-stranded narrative, visual experimentation, a mosaic of sound, interspersed with newsreel, and still photographs of black people's lives.

It's interesting and informative to listen to the direct accounts of people caught up in the riots, whether bystanders or active participants.

But the implicit aim of Handsworth Songs, as with other BAFC productions, for example Who Needs A Heart (), is not truth, exactly, but personal reflection and reaction to events.

In place of an authorial voice-over, telling us how to interpret events or who and what is important, we are left to find our own way through the 'evidence' - to weigh poetry with newsreel, to linger on stylistic details, to find su