STEVE MCQUEEN’S SMALL AXE
The True Struggle of London's West Indian Lives
Steve McQueen is a provocateur extraordinaire — and his upcoming anthology series Small Axe is looking to push boundaries and break traditional format.
Small Axe will air on BBC and go to Amazon Prime shortly after all of the episodes air. Though it’s airing on a TV network and features five installments, to say it’s a TV series wouldn’t do the mini-series justice. The five parts are vignettes exploring the lost history of London’s West Indian community — the Black lives’ stories that haven’t been documented thoroughly.
“We’re missing two generations or so of Black artists in the UK because that industry was not welcoming to Black people,” McQueen told IndieWire. “There’s a hole in our narrative. These stories shaped the history of the UK. So it’s no small feat in what the West Indian population has done in the UK and the Black population has done in the UK.”
Each segment has a run time of more than an hour, so it’s more like a five part anthology movie. The films — “Mangrove,” “Lovers Rock,” “Education,” “Alex Wheatle” and “Red, White and Blue” — follow different characters that tie to a larger theme. Three of them have made their debut at the New York Film Festival. “Lovers Rock” was supposed to premiere at the canceled Cannes Film Festival.
“Lovers Rock” is one of the more personal chapters. It explores Black love, a narrative often left out of mainstream Hollywood. “Lovers Rock” is set in the dance era of the 1980s and features one of the best choreographed dance scenes in TV history.
As for “Mangrove,” that film follows the Mangrove Nine who were arrested for protesting in the West End. Letitia Wright will play British Black Panther Altheia Jones-LeCointe. Also starring in the series is John Boyega of Star Wars fame and who has been an outspoken voice in the Black Lives Matter movement. Small Axe features a slew of young, up-and-coming talent, which was an explicit decision by McQueen.
“We wanted to find brilliant young Black talent in the UK, actors who hadn’t had the opportunity to work,” McQueen said.
Small Axe has a lot to offer. The trailer — watch it above — finally dropped and provides a first look into the “Mangrove” episode. The trailer concludes with a nod to the series name’s origins: the Bob Marley song “Small Axe.”
PROVOKRs, we’re excited for this one, and we hope you are too.
