Steve McQueen’s already celebrated ‘Small Axe’ series of movies has been confirmed for a BBC debut on screens in November. An official press release from the corporation says that the first film, Mangrove, will premiere on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 15th November. The five original films that make up the Small Axe collection by Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker, Steve McQueen will air weekly on the BBC’s heartland channel.
Set from the late 1960’s to the mid-1980’s, the films each tell a story involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will, despite rampant racism and discrimination. Even though this collection of films is set some decades ago, the stories are as vital and timely today as they were for the West Indian community in London at the time. Small Axe is a celebration of Black joy, beauty, love, friendship, family, music and even food; each one, in its own unique way, conveys hard-won successes, bringing hope and optimism for 2020.
“The seed of Small Axe was sown 11 years ago. Initially, I had conceived of it as a TV series, but I realised these stories had to stand alone as original films yet at the same time be part of a collective. The anthology, anchored in the West Indian experience in London, is a celebration of all that that community has succeeded in achieving against the odds,” explains Steve McQueen. “Although all five films take place between the late 60s and mid-80s, they are just as much a comment on the present moment as they were then. They are about the past, yet they are very much concerned with the present. A commentary on where we were, where we are and where we want to go.”
Mangrove opened the now-running BFI London Film Festival earlier this week. Amazon Prime Video will roll out the five films in other territories.
Watch the trailer below.
