Icons honoured at Windrush Film Festival

LONDON:

Actor Rudolph Walker and broadcaster Alex Pascall both received the Paulette Wilson Justice Award for their long-standing work in the community at the 2023 Windrush Caribbean Film Awards. The award is named after Paulette Wilson, the Windrush campaigner who fought tirelessly against deportation to Jamaica, helping to bring the Windrush scandal to national attention in 2016.

The 2023 Windrush Caribbean Film Awards on June 30 was the climax of the fourth annual Windrush Caribbean Film Festival, which ran from June 6 to 30 at 11 venues in five cities, marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the ship at Tilbury Docks in 1948.

The festival was presented by Caribbean Tales Media Group, Integriti Capital and Recognize Black Heritage and Culture with the support of the British Film Institute (BFI), awarding funds from the National Lottery in order to grow audiences for the festival, focusing on those 16 to 25 years old.

The closing ceremony, hosted by actress Judith Jacob at the Genesis Cinema in London on Friday, June 30, was filled with an array of Caribbean personalities, VIPs, and film-makers whose films have graced cinema screens around the United Kingdom (UK), including Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Newport, and London as part of the festival.

Walker is best known as Patrick Trueman in BBC’s long-running soap - EastEnders. He began acting at eight years old and left his birthplace, Trinidad, to move to the UK in 1960. By the 1970s, he was well-known as one of the first black actors regularly seen on television screens.

He also set up The Rudolph Walker Foundation in 2009, which helps disadvantaged youth find careers in the arts through inspirational role models and positive activities. Walker received national honours as a Commander of the British Empire CBE for services to drama and charity in 2020.

Alex Pascall was the host of Black Londoners, the first black daily show in mainstream British broadcasting, which ran for 14 years on BBC Radio London from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. He played a huge role in setting up The Voice newspaper in 1982 and was chairman of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1984. In 1996, he received an OBE for services to community relations.

PUSHING BOUNDARIES

Also in attendance at the closing ceremony was Adjani Salmon, who received the inaugural Menelik Shabazz legacy award (in partnership with Alt A Review), named after the Barbadian film-maker who died in June 2021. Shabazz is considered one of the godfathers of black British cinema. His body of work includes Burning an Illusion, The Story of Lovers Rock and Step Forward Youth, stretching over 40 years.

Last year, Salmon received a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) and an RTS award for his breakthrough comedy Dreaming Whilst Black, which piloted on BBC 1 in 2021 and will air as a full series on BBC 3 later this month.

The awards ceremony also recognised excellence in other categories, including Best Short Film, won by director Aaron James Robertson for Rea’s Men, starring Josette Simon; Best Documentary won by director Gavin Porter for The Spirit Runs Deep, and Best Breakout Film won by director Nadine O’Mahony for Rushed, starring Cherelle Skeete.

Other closing-ceremony highlights included singer Leee John, who introduced his documentary short film I Love St Lucia and Croydon Poet Laureate Shaniqua Benjamin, who stirred emotions with a Windrush-inspired poetry set.

Co-founder of the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival and CEO of Caribbean Tales, Frances Anne Solomon, delivered the keynote closing speech via video link from Toronto. She said: “It is our purpose and mission, like our Windrush ancestors before us, to keep pushing boundaries and breaking down doors. Film, music, and art are mediums through which we share our lives, connect with our community and the world. They are how we leave our legacy for generations to come so that they know who we were.”