Directed by Steve McQueen
Written by Steve McQueen, Alastair Siddons, and Courttia Newland
Starring John Boyega, Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn, Kedar Williams-Stirling, and Antonia Thomas

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

“The system rigged, it’s rotten.” - Mangrove
“We might’ve won the battle, Frank, but we still have the war.” - Mangrove
”But I’ve got no time, to live this lie. No, I’ve got no time to play your silly games.” - Lovers Rock
”Big change - that is a slow turning wheel.” - Red, White and Blue

I adore Steve McQueen for the beautiful manner in which he tackles issues of race and injustice head on - 12 Years a Slave, Hunger, and Widows all approach slavery, political justice, and systemic racism in widely unique ways. McQueen does things in his movies that film students will be studying in 10 or 20 years, if they’re not already. The driving tracking shot in Widows? The scene in Hunger where the camera doesn’t move for 17 whole minutes? Yeah, he did that. And there are similar moments of brilliance in his forthcoming Small Axe series, coming to Amazon in the US later this fall. Three of the five episodes, Mangrove, Lovers Rock, and Red, White and Blue recently premiered at the New York Film Festival - I use “episodes” lightly because two of these three are feature length. This time around, McQueen brings us into the heart of the profound joys and deep struggles of West Indian Londoners in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, deftly weaving critical moments in the fight against institutional racism with romance, strength of community, and good times. With everything happening in the US right now, the continuing fight for racial equality for BIPOC alongside a fight for the very democracy our country was founded on, Small Axe feels like just what we need right now - something else provoking us to sit up, take notice, and fight. It’s clear not much has changed in the past fifty years, in the US and abroad.