Videos

Black Blue Plaques: A film about Black heritage and the linguistic landscape

What does British heritage mean today and how is it signalled in public space? If you walk through the streets of central London, it won’t be long before you catch sight of a Blue Plaque on the outside of a building. There are thousands of them dotted around the city today, commemorating famous people and the buildings with which they had an association. Over the century and a half since the scheme started, however, the idea of ‘heritage’ that these plaques tend to represent has changed significantly – and this change is reflected in the growing numbers of plaques put up to celebrate the contribution of previously under-recognised sections of society. This film explores how minoritized groups, in this case Black people, can use a classic symbol of ‘heritage’ like the blue plaques, to counter their under-representation in the public space and imagination. Featuring the work of Black History Walks, the Nubian Jak Community Trust, and English Heritage, and narrated by Karen Arthur.

Written, produced and directed by Lab Ky Mo, Philip Seargeant, Korina Giaxoglou and Frank Monaghan.

Why Slogans Matter

Philip Seargeant and Lara Frumkin take an animated dive into the language and slogans used in protest movements.

‘The Night Frankenstein Was Born’: An interview with Stephen Volk, writer of Gothic (1986)

The screenwriter Stephen Volk talks to Selina Packard about his script for the 1986 film Gothic, about working with director Ken Russell, about the evolution of the Frankenstein myth and its place in the British horror genre, and also about the politics of being a writer, both in the early 19th and early 21st centuries. Directed by Philip Seargeant.