Deadline is reporting that director Steve McQueen‘s two new movies, Mangrove and Lovers Rock, has been dedicated to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“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 U.S., U.K. and elsewhere. ‘If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.’ Black lives matter.”
The films come from the director’s British anthology series Small Axe, which was previously described as a TV series, but is now an anthology of five films which will show on the BBC and Amazon Prime.
The two films were announced today for Cannes, which hasn’t taken place this year due to the coronavirus but has announced its lineup in a bid to boost the distribution credentials of some of the films.
Each film tells a different story, set within London’s West Indian community from the 1960s to the mid 1980s, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will despite rampant racism and discrimination.
The first film, Mangrove, tells the true story of the Mangrove Nine and Frank Crichlow, starring Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Shaun Parkes (Lost In Space), and Malachi Kirby (Black Mirror). The second film, Lovers Rock, tells a fictional story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980s, starring Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II), Micheal Ward (Top Boy), Shaniqua Okwok (Van der Valk) and Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education).
As previously announced, John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) will also star in one of the anthology’s films, with more details forthcoming. The two films announced for Cannes are due to have a theatrical release in France.
The anthology series is executive produced by Tracey Scoffield and David Tanner for Turbine Studios and Steve McQueen for Lammas Park. Mike Elliot is producing for EMU Films with Turbine Studios and Anita Overland
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