Birmingham-based filmmaker Yugesh Walia discusses the trilogy of films he made between 1980 and 1982, including Mirror, Mirror, Sweet Chariot and African Oasis.
It’s funny how something you created at the start of your career, something you thought was long forgotten suddenly finds a new lease of life! That’s what’s happened to my first documentary, African Oasis, made in 1982.
African Oasis has been screened by Birmingham's Vivid Projects and at Midlands Arts Centre Cinema several times over the past few years and in 2019 Birmingham Museums Trust acquired my very first trilogy of films (Mirror Mirror 1980, Sweet Chariot 1981, African Oasis 1982) to be part of the city’s permanent collection, representing significant aspects of the city's diverse communities and cultures.
I'm very proud that, as a film maker, this is the first time that Birmingham Museum and Arts Galleries have acquired moving image material to complement paintings, photographs, textiles etc in their existing collection.
All the films in my trilogy were made with arts grants and were produced through the newly formed Birmingham Film Workshop, established in December 1979. Roger Shannon was its founding lead and he produced African Oasis. Later ‘Video’ was added to the Workshop’s name – a sign that new technology was on its way which would make filmmaking hugely accessible to a wider community and transform the way stories were told.
BFVW was set up in December 1979 to stimulate independent film activity in the region; part of a national movement to respond to a need for alternative voices on race, gender and class to be heard. In the 1980's BFVW played a prominent role in the national network of Film Workshops (financially supported by the British Film Institute and the new television station, Channel 4).
Along with the many films and videos that came out of BFVW in the '80's, defining the city's 'take' on independent cinema in that decade, were many other media initiatives influenced by its robustly partisan approach to regional creative industries (eg, the award winning Birmingham international Film / Television Festival; an annual Third cinema Focus; the West Midlands Media Development Agency; the West Midlands Screen Production Fund etc).
For me becoming involved in this movement was a political awakening. I had been in Britain three years by then, but I had been tucked away at the Birmingham School of Photography. The School was very white and very male. I made a lot of white friends and I was never made to feel an outsider.
Having come from Delhi I was surprised at the lack of integration I had noticed amongst the Asian community. My first short fiction film, Mirror Mirror, was a comment on that divide. I recognised later that this isolation was not self-inflicted, that it was mostly due to the host white community not encouraging such integration to take place.
Then, through Roger Shannon's promptings at BFVW, I came into contact with the Handsworth Cultural Centre, its many users and its Director, Bob Ramdhanie (with whom I still collaborate). A whole new world opened up for me. I encountered the African and Caribbean community for the first time in any meaningful way.
It was a culture I knew nothing about – and I was captivated. Out of that relationship and workshops held there, came a second short fiction film, Sweet Chariot. Culture, identity and race were now my central focus and a year later came African Oasis, a documentary about the Cultural Centre itself.
In 1985 my brother Sunandan and I set up our own production company (Endboard Productions) and our first few films – Language is the Key featuring poet Benjamin Zephaniah and Silver Shine profiling local jazz legend Andy Hamilton all had race and culture at their core.
As we entered the world of television we encountered a different form of racism. As Asian producers we were routinely shunted off to Channel 4’s multicultural commissioning department. It was as if we were incapable of telling more universal stories.
But we were determined to make it in mainstream television. Fortunately, there were some forward thinking, right-minded white commissioners who liked our ideas and did commission us. We ended up making documentaries and telling stories from many different parts of the world and picking up some awards along the way.
We did however engage with and win commissions from the Asian Programmes Unit (APU) at the BBC once that was set up and Sunandan also became a Series Producers there for three years. In time both the multicultural dept at C4 and the APU were disbanded.
Channel 5 recently announced development funding for a range of production companies owned and run by minority ethnic producers. The BBC has ringfenced £100m in production funding to increase diversity on its channels. The fact that broadcasters are still having to take such initiatives in 2021 says a lot in itself.
There’s an interesting read about racism within the BBC from someone who was there on the inside: I was on a British TV diversity scheme – and saw why they don't change anything by Tabasam Begum.
I do believe that attitudes towards race generally have changed a lot since those early days of the 80s. But now and then, all it takes is a spark, and racism rears its ugly head again and you wonder if anything has changed. African Oasis feels just as relevant today as it did then.
Background and further reading
For information about Yugesh Walia's films, visit his production company website.
There is a separate page on this site about each of the three films -
'Mirror, Mirror', 'Sweet Chariot' and 'African Oasis', including details of initial screenings and selections at the London and Edinburgh International Film Festivals.
Interviews with Yugesh Walia:
- http://www.vividprojects.org.uk/programme/african-oasis-2/
- http://www.vividprojects.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/We-were-learning-on-the-go.-An-Interview-with-Yugesh-Walia-on-the-19th-of-June-2020-by-Cathy-Wade.-.pdf
Commentary on Asian - British Cinema in BFI Screen On Line
For further reading about Birmingham Film/Video Workshop/BFVW
'What We Were Trying To Do Is Make Popular Politics : The Birmingham Film and Video Workshop/ BFVW'; Yasmeen Baig-Clifford, Paul Long, Roger Shannon
Fior information about Professor Roger Shannon
'Mirror, Mirror', 'Sweet Chariot' and 'African Oasis' (Yugesh Walia's trilogy) are part of the 'Collecting Birmingham Project' at Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries (BMAG). Film viewings are accessible via BMAG.