A
controversial new BBC film about the black community
in Britain has been described both as "a landmark
piece" and "the most racist programme in the
BBC's history."
Black writer Sharon Foster's screenplay is a drama portraying
one man's efforts to help change lives - only to find
himself bitterly railing against the attitudes of the
black community.
The film, winner of the Dennis Potter
award for screenwriting, opens with the line: "Whenever
I think about it, everything bad that has ever happened
to me has involved a black person."
Director Ngozi Onwurah told the BBC
News website that the film deals with issues prevelant
in the black community, "but quite often don't
talk about in public".
"Part of the role of a writer
is having to look at some of the more uncomfortable
things in the world that you know," she said.
Denigration
Shoot The Messenger centres on Joe
Pascale, a black middle-class computer programmer who
quits his job to become a teacher and help underachieving
black pupils.
But one of the children accuses him
of assault, sending him into a downward spiral which
he believes is caused by black people.
BBC Two controller Roly Keating has
hailed it as "Look Back In Anger for a generation
of black Britons", but black media campaign group
Ligali called it a "flagship programme for racism".
"This is one of the most racist,
demeaning and misrepresentative films ever broadcast
and commissioned by the BBC," said Toyin Agbetu,
the founder of Ligali, which seeks to challenge "the
misrepresentation of African people in the British media".
"African people in Britain are
portrayed as a monolithic, belligerent, aggressive,
politically naive and intellectually-diminished,"
he added.
Positive images
Mr Agbetu argues the film has potential
to cause offence and should not be screened.
"Showing Shoot The Messenger would
herald a return to the "care-free" days of
the Black And White Minstrel Show - an era before programme
producers realised it was immoral to consistently caricature
one group for the sole exploitative entertainment of
another," he added.
But the film's director, Ngozi Onwurah,
said that Ligali wanted to only see positive black characters
on screen, which would also be misrepresentative.
"The starting point for some of
their arguments is very valid - there are a lot of negative
portrayals in the media and there needs to be somebody
watching what's going on," she said.
"But that doesn't mean that you
counteract it by having almost pure propaganda".
Hard filming
Ms Onwurah said it was only because
both herself and the writer are from the black community
that they understood the frustrations and had been able
to make the film.
But she stressed that shooting some
of the scenes was "incredibly hard."
At one point, the central character,
Joe, vents his rage by declaring to a stunned party:
"They should bring back slavery - that's what we're
good at."
"You have to get the note right,
and you have to be with the character," Onwurah
said. "You have to understand why the character's
in this place after this series of events."
"If you wanted to, you could look
at this and say, 'in this piece of work, they say bring
back slavery.' But that would not be looking at the
work properly."
Shoot The Messenger will be screened on BBC Two
on 30 August.
Return to Press Cuttings index
|
