Watch this: White Riot – the story of Rock Against Racism

White Riot film - photo by Syd Shelton

This documentary, White Riot – the story of Rock Against Racism sounds brilliant. Rock Against Racism, a music movement spawned by a march and mini-festival in 1978 was such an important part of British social and music history and I bet the archive live footage is fantastic.

A special digital screening of the doc will take place from tomorrow (Wednesday 29th April) until Sunday 3rd May on the Curzon Live site here (£9.99 on demand). And on Thursday 30th April at 8.30pm GMT there will be a free live-streamed panel talk with director Rubika Shah and host Mark Kermode on YouTube here.

For a taster, watch the trailer here.

‘White Riot is set against a backdrop of Britain in the late-1970s, where Punk is exploding and the country is deeply divided over immigration, with the far-right and fascist political party, the National Front, gaining strength. Blending contemporary interviews with powerful archive footage and interviews, the film recreates a moment in time when music changed the world and a generation challenged the status quo. It climaxes with RAR’s huge antifascist carnival in April 1978, which saw 100,000 people march across London before attending an outdoor festival in Victoria Park headlined by The Clash, X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and Tom Robinson.’

White Riot Rock Against Racism film - photo by Syd Shelton
White Riot film - photo by Ray Stevenson

P.S. if your interest is piqued, I highly recommend an excellent podcast about the event featuring Daniel Rachel, who wrote the oral history, Walls Come Tumbling Down.

See you at the virtual popcorn counter…

WORDS: Disneyrollergirl/Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Syd Shelton x 2; Ray Stevenson
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here

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