Watch a trailer for Mangrove, the first installment of Steve McQueen's new anthology
This fall, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, Widows) will release an anthology via BBC and Amazon Prime Video comprised of five films that explore life in London’s West Indian community. Today, McQueen shared his first look at the anthology, dubbed Small Axe, with a look at Mangrove, a film honoring the 50th anniversary of the “Mangrove 9" protests.
Black Panther’s Letitia Wright of the film, which follows 150 protestors of West Indian, African and South Asian heritage as they march on local police stations in defiance of the rampant harassment of their community. Nine of the protest’s leaders were arrested and charged with incitement to riot, and the film will chronicle their heated trial in addition to the march itself.
Watch the trailer below.
“Sunday, August 9th, is 50 years since the Mangrove March, which led to nine innocent Black women and men being arrested,” McQueen says in a press release. “It was a march necessitated by relentless police brutality in Notting Hill. To commemorate the bravery of these community activists and the nine who went on to be acquitted of incitement to riot with the judge citing ‘evidence of racial hatred,’ I am sharing the trailer of Mangrove, one of five films to be released under the banner Small Axe.”
Shaun Parkes, Malachi Kirby, and Rochenda Sandall round out the cast of the installment, which is slated to hit both the BBC and Amazon Prime this fall.