WHY SHOULD YOU WATCH BBC'S ANTHOLOGY FILM SERIES "SMALL AXE"?

One month ago, BBC One premiered “Mangrove”, the first film from Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated “Small Axe” collection of films, both on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Then, the British broadcaster debuted on film per week, finalizing this past Sunday in the United Kingdom with the movie called “Education”.

Set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the films each tell a story involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will, despite rampant racism and discrimination. Even though this collection of films is set some decades ago, the stories are as vital and timely today as they were for the West Indian community in London at the time. “Small Axe” is a celebration of Black joy, beauty, love, friendship, family, music and even food; each one, in its own unique way, conveys hard-won successes, bringing hope and optimism.

“The seed of ‘Small Axe’ was sown 11 years ago. Initially, I had conceived of it as a TV series, but I realised these stories had to stand alone as original films, yet at the same time be part of a collective. The anthology, anchored in the West Indian experience in London, is a celebration of all that that community has succeeded in achieving against the odds,”  Steve McQueen explained. "Although all five films take place between the late 1960s and mid-80s, they are just as much a comment on the present moment as they were then. They are about the past, yet they are very much concerned with the present. A commentary on where we were, where we are and where we want to go,”  he added.

Meanwhile, Lucy Richer, Senior Drama Commissioner and Executive Producer for the BBC, commented: “It has been an honour to work with Steve to bring ‘Small Axe’ to screen. With his visionary genius as a filmmaker, he has made incredible, life-changing, life-affirming films which tell burning stories from our past and blaze a trail for the future”.

"Small Axe" has been executive produced by Tracey Scoffield and David Tanner for Turbine Studios and Steve McQueen for Lammas Park. Mike Elliot is producing for EMU Films with Turbine and Anita Overland. The executive producers for the BBC are Lucy Richer, Senior Commissioning Editor for Drama and Rose Garnett, Director of BBC Film. Amazon Studios is co-producing within the United States. BBC Studios are the international distributors and are handling global television sales.