Anti-Racist Alliance Marks 30th Anniversary with Screening of Groundbreaking Film ‘Wonderful World’

The Liberation Movement has announced a special fundraising film event to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of its predecessor, the Anti-Racist Alliance (ARA). 

On Saturday 20th of November at the RIO Cinema in Dalston, Hackney, a trio of films will screen to celebrate the anniversary of the organisation as part of Hackney’s Black History in the Making season, including the groundbreaking anti-racist campaign ‘Wonderful World’. 

The film, which originally aired in 1995, was creatively devised by MBA’s Graham Kerr and Stephan Maher, and produced by Great Guns. Directed by acclaimed visual artist Zak Ové, it offers a brutal twist on Louis Armstrong’s iconic track ‘Wonderful World’, and stars actor Patrick Robinson in the main role. 

Graham Kerr, creative Founder of MBA, comments: “I’m still very proud of this film I wrote some 25 years ago, but saddened that we as a society haven’t moved forward and just hope that this will raise some awareness of racism in our society.”

Laura Gregory, Founder of Great Guns, adds: “My thoughts reflect Graham’s comment, where has the time gone? Why are we still in such turmoil in spite of the different leaders we’ve elected in the last 25 years who all promised change? Seeing the film made me proud of the constant support Great Guns gives to the underrepresented and depressed that so little has changed.”

Director Zak Ové will attend the event alongside Orson Nava (director of The Protector for ITV and Hackney’s Black Curriculum for Hackney Council) as part of a Q&A chaired by Dr Margaret Busby CBE, former chair of the Booker Prize. All three aforementioned films will screen at the event: 

 

Special guests at the event will also include special forces-trained close protection officer Glen Dinnal-Allen, who stars in Orson’s The Protector and Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Deputy Mayor and cabinet member for education, young people and children’s social care for Hackney Council. Anntoinette Bramble founded the borough’s groundbreaking Hackney’s Black Curriculum - The Black Contribution and the Improving Outcomes for Young Black Men project.

 

This event is part of Hackney’s Black History in the Making season which runs from September to December. You can find more information here and here.