Filmmaker Steve McQueen has something epic coming up. Fresh from 2018’s Widows, he’s cooked up anthology series Small Axe – a set of five films about the Black experience in Britain, coming to BBC One (in the UK) and Amazon Prime Video (elsewhere) later this year. The project has been in the works since its announcement way back in 2014 – and now the first trailer has arrived for Mangrove, the second instalment in the series. This one is about the protest against police harassment which took place in Notting Hill on 9 August 1970 – 50 years ago today, hence the launch – and the ‘Mangrove 9’ who were arrested for leading it, with a cast led by Letitia Wright. Watch the trailer:
While it’s a BBC episodic anthology, McQueen really has made five films here – Mangrove was selected for Cannes earlier this year and clocks in at 2 hours and 4 minutes, as was fellow Small Axe instalment Lovers Rock, which has a 68 minute runtime. The three other instalments are titled Alex Wheatle, Education, and Red, White And Blue, the latter starring John Boyega. “I dedicate these films to George Floyd and all the other Black people that have been murdered, seen or unseen, because of who they are, in the US, UK and elsewhere,” McQueen said in the wake of Floyd’s killing earlier this year. “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe. Black Lives Matter.”
It’s currently unknown exactly when Small Axe will roll out on the BBC – but stay tuned for more release info which likely won’t be far off.