British Urban Film's Struggle for Critical Recognition with Dr Clive Nwonka

For the final episode in the current season I'm speaking to leading academic on Black British and African American film, Dr Clive Nwonka. Clive's latest book Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Film is the first to have been written on the subject. In it, Clive argues the need for this often overlooked and denigrated genre to be properly recognised in its own right - so that it might take its rightful place in arts and culture. Clive shares his insights on the social and political history from the 70s and 80s that fed into the emergence of British Urban projects in the 2000s; how Black representation has suffered a default construction around negative portrayals of Black culture and social crises; how the TV series Top Boy and the era of streaming heralded a new - and much needed - platform for British Urban storytelling; and much much more. We also discuss Clive's programme of films inspired by James Baldwin at London's Barbican in May 2024.

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