Both films critique the press, which propagates moral panics, focusing here on conservative newspapers like The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Sun, and The Daily Mirror. In The People’s Account, a voice-over critiques these newspapers by showing biased highlights and the newspapers names through a slow-paced montage. This montage puts the main narrative on hold to indicate the importance of critically assessing the media and its impact on communities. The People’s Account gives specific examples, underscoring how the press made only a minimal effort to investigate the deaths of Mrs. Jarrett and Mrs. Groce, focusing on the police’s point of view and neglecting the communities’.

 As described in The People’s Account, Broadwater Farm’s black community march against police inadequacy and media scapegoating then fueled rumors of a riot in Broadwater Farm. However, an architect hired by the council found no evidence to support this. Instead, there was evidence of riot rumors. The architect concluded it was impossible to store petrol there without risking residents’ lives, debunking the police’s narrative and the moral panics they disseminated. These rumors explained why the police scrutinized Broadwater Farm, leading to a sense of vendetta within the community. Outraged by the unexplained deaths of two women and feeling threatened by the police, the community resorted to armed self-defense, precipitating the riot.

Newspaper headlines on the riots.

The People’s Account presents this information in a journalistic manner, with a voice-over, minimal background music, and explanations given as images are juxtaposed. This montage style provides black Britons with community information away from biased conceptions. The montages’ slow pace allows for a contemplative space where the community’s point of view is foregrounded. Additionally, the inclusion of further data helps in creating a fair and unbiased account, opening a space of representation with first-hand knowledge.

The People’s Account also shows the police’s double standards and failure to acknowledge historical amnesia about how and why the black communities view the police negatively. In this case, the film documents the police strategy to contain black British communities by encouraging them to join the police force. That happened after the riots. In a talking-head interview, Richard Wells, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at New Scotland Yard, promotes the rationale behind this idea by explaining that if black people join the service, it will seem like they are inside the police’s servicing the people. The Deputy’s initiative is then contrasted through depicting John Fernandes, a lecturer of multicultural studies at the cadets’ school, explaining why the initiative was unwelcome to black Britons. He had asked some cadets to complete an essay expressing their opinion about the presence of black Britons. A montage of the essays and a voice-over indicates the impossibility of reconciliation the white cadets to more blacks on the force. Some excerpts grom their essays say how black migrants take jobs and houses and do not contribute to the country; some cadets wonder if black people burn betterthan if one were to use oil. 99% of the cadets writing these essays were later hired as police, showing that the “integration” campaign was a strategy to contain black communities, with little genuine effort toward real change. Contrasting the Deputy’s and Fernandes’ speeches display Ceddo’s effort in presenting a balanced argument unlike mainstream media sources.

A cadet’s essay on the presence of black Britons.

In Racism: a Response, through a talking-head interview, Stuart Hall explains that this police initiative failed because black British communities were ideologically prepared to break free from oppression and resist hegemonic British practices. However, Hall remains optimistic in Racism: a Response, claiming that if a commitment to change from the top emerged, racist practices could stop. But any change in policing needs intervention in cadet education and training because if black Britons cannot trust the oppressive system with makes them struggle, how can they be part of it? The situation now, as one interviewee argues in The People’s Account, is that the law is what the policeman interprets.

Resistance and opposition: which way forward?

The title of both productions indicates the resistance and need for truthfulness, which are self-explanatory. Racism: a Response highlights how racism is a major global issue needing urgent action. Through a montage with juxtaposed recordings of community youth associations and events like the Haringey anti-racist festival, the work creates a smooth account of black Britons’ resistance, community orientation, and transgenerational and multicultural solidarity.[4] [open endnotes in new window] The festival is described as a moment to educate and remember ongoing solidarity of black people. It includes music, reading groups, speeches, and food organized by different racial groups to represent Britain’s multiculturalism and the contributions of various communities to British life.

Focusing on younger generations is crucial in both films since the youth underscore the social and psychological importance of analysing the past and disrupting dominant narratives so as to secure the future of black communities. The People’s Account expresses this idea by drawing parallels with South African apartheid through a montage showing young people protesting in South Africa and Britain. This use of international footage reminds us that racism isn’t isolated to Britain but affects the Afro-American diaspora worldwide. Including such montages signals the intertextual power of these kinds of radical documentaries and black Britains transcultural fight.

The two works demonstrate how media can challenge misrepresentation by introducing liberating and disruptive images and narratives. In the films, black British communities react to injustice as a unified and angry block, stemming from their shared history of displacement, neglect, and marginalization in Britain and the diaspora. As memory studies scholar Michael Rothberg suggested, traumas associated with racism create a relational intimacy (2009, 233). Black Britons’ collective memory and experience of marginalization acts as a cohesive force driving opposition to oppression and resistance to discrimination. Understanding that politics underpins racism, black communities worldwide engage in campaigns and demonstrations to manifest the need for change and legislative reform. In both Ceddo productions, slow-paced montages of black people marching highlight this idea. In The People’s Account, for example, the emphasis is heightened by presenting the montages in black and white and using color in specific moments to call for the end of racism, creating a contemplative space and symbolic depth.

In Racism: a Response, the commitment to future generations is emphasized. An interviewee indicates the need for black people to buy their own newspapers and consume their own media to avoid manipulation by sources like The Sun, The Express, or the Daily Mail. As the mass media perpetuate stereotypes, they impact younger consumers, making them doubt their sense of self. The press fosters cultural dislocation and rootlessness in migrant subjects. As the interview argues, if you are continuously told that you are a criminal, stupid, or incapable, those words take effect (Racism: a Response 1990). In this way, both films are highly pedagogic. To focus on younger generations of black Britons still facing racism and marginalization highlights two crucial points. Past wounds are not healed, as the history and memory of black British communities have been repressed; and racism has a temporal connection to the past, even if its effects are felt in the present.

Paul Gilroy wrote about racism(s) in the plural, underscoring how different societies operate at different times (1993). Racism: a Response also shows how previous generations faced racism in diverse forms, but present generations face unemployment, housing, and economic crises, with Thatcher using them as scapegoats (Phillips and Phillips 1998). Young black Britons face similar situations under Thatcherism, indicating the absurdity of not expanding the ideal of Britishness to include blackness. Unity among black and white youth is then seen in Toxteth riots (Liverpool), indicating the importance of adding class to ideas about buidling resistance.

Through opposition, both works reimagine the margins and challenge the center now occupied by hegemonic Britain. By disputing social power and illustrating how decolonization disrupts the established order, the productions actively participate in a historical process (Fanon 1961) which fights against historical amnesia. The narratives they include are timeless visual acts of resistance that challenge the status quo and present alternatives to ineffective ideals.

Memory and history are key in resisting oppression. Combined with challenging media, black British memory and history can be excavated, transformed, and encoded for future generations to understand their past and walk towards the future with a sense of belonging. Ceddo’s use of archival material to craft the two productions exemplify a deliberate and self-reflective approach to remembrance. By encoding archive material into the works, Ceddo interprets the past and preserves memory for future generations. Through their productions, Ceddo mediates the history and memory of black British communities, emphasizing how the past serves as source material and foundation for the present and future as a site of creation of counter-memories, ideological emancipation and resistance to oppression.

Brixton Riots, 1981.

Conclusion

The People’s Account and Racism: a Response demonstrate the marginalization and displacement experienced by black British communities. These film trace how the media and police are interconnected repressive and ideological state apparatuses used against black British communities. Their symbiotic relation has led to the vilification and scapegoating of black British communities, particularly during crises like the 1980s under Thatcherism. Together, the media and police cultivate an apprehensive atmosphere, legitimizing surveillance.

I’ve explored how Ceddo used cinema to confront hegemonic amnesia and create a  repository of cultural memory r for future generations Both works offer non-stereotypical depictions of black British communities and give authority to unheard black British voices. They challenge and disrupt the biased narratives of British media. Through their productions, Ceddo subverts misrepresentations of the black diaspora in Britain. By creating a link between forgetting and remembering–-historical amnesia–- in black British communities, the films illustrate the relation between memory and identity.

As Homi Bhabha states, “In every state of emergency, there is an emergence” (1994, 214). and In the eighties, Ceddo emerged as an influential voice in black British cinema, presenting overlooked narratives and shifting black British positions from the margins to the center. Ceddo preserves the memory of black communities through its cinematic aesthetics. For Ceddo’s member Glen Ujebe Masokoane there is still time to change the narrative:

“The future could still be in our hands, let us, therefore, make this gathering a pivotal moment where we can push and advance black filmmaking in this country to become a recognizable force" (1983, 63).

Ceddo’s commitment to addressing black issues through media underscores their significance as a cultural force deserving recognition today.