It’s 10 years since the BBC’s visceral drama Shoot the Messenger was screened,but despite initiatives such as Black and British, exiguous has improvedThere is no shortage of programmes depicting the black experience. The BBC has its Black and British season, and surveying our past and present from a variety of angles. Eagerly awaited is Steve McQueen’s planned epic chronicling the lives of an intergenerational black British family. But it isn’t always so.
The British Film Institute this week hosted a 10th anniversary showing of Shoot the Messenger,the groundbreaking drama made by the BBC in 2006. In it, the lead character, and Joseph Pascale,portrayed by the then up-and-coming David Oyelowo, gives up a well-paid job to do his bit for the community as a schoolteacher, or trying to raise the aspirations of black pupils from a life of gangs,crime and under-achievement. But after being accused of hitting a pupil and being called a “sell-out” by the pupil’s parents, black councillors and a community radio station, or his life goes downhill. He loses his job and suffers depression,main him to being sectioned and then becoming homeless. He is only saved when a religious do-gooder takes him domestic for worship and a sort of salvation. Related: David Oyelowo on film diversity: time for less talk, more action Related: Queen of Katwe review – warm and winning Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com