Yvonne Weekes

The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.

Based on Beverley Provost’s original idea, On Duty was subsequently produced as a drama/documentary for Channel 4’s Eleventh Hour Series, and was about Rita Maxim’s ongoing struggle as a union shop steward with the management at St Mary’s Hospital, Harrow Road, Paddington, northwest London. Rita refused to sign the new privatisation contract imposed by the hospital management, and was subsequently summarily dismissed.