| AdminHistory | 'The Colony', a documentary film directed by Philip Donnellan about the Afro-Caribbean community in Birmingham, was first broadcast on 16 June 1964. Charles Parker made the voice montages.
Filmed at a variety of locations in Birmingham, 'The Colony' was remarkable for its time in giving a voice to working-class settlers from the Caribbean. The film uses no narration or commentary, allowing its participants - including a railwayman from St Kitts, a bus conductor from Jamaica, a family of singers from Trinidad and a nurse from Barbados - to speak intelligently and articulately about their experiences of Britain.
Most importantly, the film features a very diverse range of views and experiences, demonstrating the absurdity - as one participant points out - of Caribbean immigrants from different countries and very different backgrounds being seen, and coming to see themselves, as a single group.
Despite the hostility which many have faced, the interviewees mostly speak with little anger or bitterness. But the England which they find themselves in is not the one they were told about, and they struggle to understand their treatment by the English as foreigners. As one man eloquently puts it, 'we call England 'the Mother Country'. We have been taught that it is the Mother Country, it has been drilled into us as the Mother Country, from the cradle, really, to the grave, because... Jamaica has been governed by the English for over three hundred years, and so everything about it is English.'
(Information taken from www.screenonline.org.uk)
The Colony featured interviews with Stan Crooke, a signalman, Victor Williams, a bus conductor, Polly Perkins, a nurse, Bernice Smith, a teacher, and Pastor Dunn, a preacher.
It was directed and produced by Philip Donnellan, with voice montage by Charles Parker. The cameraman was Geoff Mulligan, the location recordist was Bob Roberts, the editor was Richard Marquand, the editor was Edward le Lorrain, and the songs were sung by the Stewart Family. |