Race & Racism

This collection explores how Black and other racialised communities have used video to document lived experience, challenge stereotypes, and expose systemic inequality. Made during a period of intense social and political change in Britain, these tapes engage with themes of racism in housing, education, policing, employment, and the media. The collection includes interviews with young Black people facing homelessness, youth-led conversations about identity and representation in Ladbroke Grove and Brixton, and white participants reflecting critically on the assumptions and privileges of whiteness. A highlight of the collection is Tunde’s Film by Tunde Ikoli and Maggie Pinhorn (Basement Films Project), a gritty, social realist drama set in 1970s East London following a group of young black teenagers navigating racism, unemployment and police harassment in pre-developed Tower Hamlets. Themes in this collection include: white privilege; the legacy of empire; working class solidarity; media stereotypes; Black youth culture; institutional racism; and self-representation. Featured titles include Being White, Black Homelessness, Step Forward Youth, Open Door: East End Channel 1, and Tunde’s Film.