‘Mangrove’: Revolution Sparks In Steve McQueen’s Uplifting ‘Small Axe’ Courtroom Drama [NYFF Review]

Small Axe anthology on the BBC have been revealed.Mangrove, the first of five original films, will premiere on BBC One and iPlayer on November 15.

Black Panther star Letitia Wright is to star in critically acclaimed British anthology drama I Am.The show debuted last year (2019), with a trilogy of episodes each focusing on one woman’s story, with Samantha Morton, Gemma Chan, and Vicky McClure starring.Letitia has now filmed an episode of a new three-part series from creator Dominic Savage, I Am Danielle – playing the title character.She says in a press release: “Collaborating with Dominic Savage has been an amazing experience.

Black Panther breakout Letitia Wright has joined the cast of Dominic Savage’s critically-acclaimed, female-led drama anthology series I Am for U.K. network Channel 4.

Two years after opening the BFI London Film Festival with his all-star crime thriller Widows, London-born Steve McQueen again has been given curtain-raising honors. Mangrove — which tells the real-life story of the city’s Black activists who became known as the Mangrove 9 after their historic 1970 trial, the first to expose racial prejudice within the Metropolitan Police — will kick off the event Oct.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorIt’s been more than six years in the making, but Steve McQueen’s anthology drama Small Axe finally has a date for when it will land on British TV screens.The BBC has announced that it will premiere the five-part series on November 15 on BBC One and iPlayer.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIn “Red, White and Blue,” the fifth and final film of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology (and the third to be shown at this year’s New York Film Festival, after the lilting reggae house-party movie “Lovers Rock” and the wrenching social-protest courtroom drama “Mangrove”), Leroy Logan (John Boyega), a British research scientist, figures that he’s had enough of the lonely work of staring at tissue specimens through a microscope, so he decides to become a member

Todd McCarthy Red, White and Blue, the third and final installment of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe quintet of films about racial issues specific to Great Britain being world premiered at the New York Film Festival, zeroes in on the ordeal of a young black Londoner set on helping to definitively break the color barrier at London’s Metropolitan Police Force in the early 1980s.

One of the great joys of the New York Film Festival has been watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology “Small Axe.” Composed of five works set between the late-’60s and early-’80s, the two recently screened films — “Lovers Rock” and “Mangrove” — are intimate slices of life of a little-represented community, British Black folks from the West Indies, resiliently thriving amidst a racially hostile environment.

One of the great joys of the New York Film Festival has been watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology “Small Axe.” Composed of five works set between the late-’60s and early-’80s, the two recently screened films — “Lovers Rock” and “Mangrove” — are intimate slices of life of a little-represented community, British Black folks from the West Indies, resiliently thriving amidst a racially hostile environment.

Watch Video: 'Small Axe' Trailer: John Boyega, Letitia Wright Tackle London Racism in Anthology SeriesAlso cheering on his consideration of police work are Leroy’s “auntie,” a family friend who has worked for years as a liaison between the police and the city’s West Indian population, and Leroy’s wife Gretl (Antonia Thomas, “The Good Doctor”), who playfully but honestly tells him that he’s the kind of person who wants people to witness him at his job, and that he’s a sucker for a snappy

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios sells Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe”; ZDF commissions natural history series “Africa From Above”; “Married at First Sight” gets live wedding; ITV orders game-show format “Game of Talents”; travel format “Heads and Tails” goes to Spain; Jellyfish promotes Natalie Llewellyn; German Film Office opens in New York; and Monte-Carlo TV Festival sets 2021 dates.BBC Studios has secured several global pre-sales for Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen‘

Jake Kanter International TV EditorBBC Studios has closed a raft of global deals for Steve McQueen’s hotly-anticipated anthology drama Small Axe, which will premiere on BBC One in the UK and Amazon in the U.S.Australia’s Foxtel, France’s Salto, Spain’s Movistar+, Russia’s KinoPoisk, and Greece’s Cosmote TV are among the territories to have picked up the show.

Todd McCarthy If Lovers Rock provided a sensuous, feel-good vibe to the opening night of this year’s unusual New York Film Festival, Mangrove supplies a follow-up thwack to the head and punch to the gut.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticAsk yourself: What do the words “Black Power” signify to you? That’s the question several of the Mangrove Nine — nine Black activists arrested when a public demonstration against London police harassment on Aug. 9, 1970 devolved into an incendiary example of the very thing they were protesting — put to each and every one of the potential jurors in what would prove to be a landmark civil rights trial.

Enoch Powell was, and why the “rivers of blood” speech was important — but for the most part, McQueen and Siddons provide enough information to make sense to those unfamiliar with these events without having characters dump exposition all over each other.As with “Lovers Rock,” the period detail seems precise, and the music choices provide both energy and context. And even with so many characters on trial, the film finds time to include some nugget of empathy or specificity for each one.

Lovers Rock, another instalment in Sir Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, has been added to the line-up of the BFI London Film Festival.

A new trailer for a collection of films made by Steve McQueen gives a glimpse at the performances of Letitia Wright and John Boyega.

“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe,” states a Jamaican proverb, inspiring the title of “Small Axe”, an upcoming anthology series from director Steve McQueen for Amazon Prime Video.

“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe,” this is the Jamaican proverb that has inspired filmmaker Steve McQueen‘s, “Small Axe,” a collection of five films inspired by real-life events about ordinary people showing courage, belief, and resilience to overcome injustice and achieve something transformative in their West Indian community.