Black History Walks | London's Black History
Film Screening | Defiance
Essential film about police killings and Janet's 28 year fight for justice for her brother Christopher, the first custody death shown on TV.
Double event of Ken Fero's award-winning film about police brutality that was banned by BBC, Channel 4, ITV etc and pulled from cinemas PLUS book launch/talk of Defiance written by Janet Alder who is in the documentary.
Ex-paratrooper of Nigerian descent Christopher Alder (Janet's brother) was arrested on March 31st 1998 in a fit physical condition but 24 hours later he was filmed dying in Hull police station with his trousers around his ankles. A brief summary of what happened next includes:
Police destroyed Christophers clothes
Police dry cleaned their own uniforms
Police washed out the van Christopher was transported in
Police refused to release the video of his death
Police assigned undercover officers to spy on Janet
Police gave Janet the wrong body to bury
Police used parts of Christopher's body for training purposes with cadets
Janet took the government to the European Court of Human Rights in 2011 and won her case
Janet is still fighting for justice in an ongoing story of Black British Civil rights
The film will be followed by a Q&A with Janet and co-author Dan Glazebrook.The book will be on sale on the day
This is an African Odysseys film screeninng, previously at BFI Southbank for 17 years until BFI cancelled it with no consultation of the Black community
There will also be a discussion on activism/BLM and 60 years since the 1965 Race Relations Act. This is part of a year long series of events in recognition that its now 60 years since this equality law was passed and the struggle continues. For example institutions like the BFI ignoring equality legislation by refusing to run a Race Equality Impact Assessment before cancelling the popular, anti-racist, educational film programme, African Odysseys.
This very event would have been held at the more central,bigger taxpayer-funded BFI Southbank but for the BFI ignoring 17,400 people who signed to the petition to keep the monthly anti-racist film series.
The petition is supported by people like Akala, Adoah Anjoh, Rudolph Walker,