Pool of London
Black Stories • Crime, UR
A naive Jamaican sailor on shore leave in London's East End is dragged into a botched diamond robbery when trying to help a friend. Featuring the debut performance of Bermudian actor Earl Cameron - one of the leading black British movie actors working in the 1950s and 1960s - Pool of London is one of the first British films to deal with mixed-race romance and gives an early eloquent voice to the Windrush generation. Ealing filmmakers Basil Dearden and Michael Relph mix powerful social commentary with a tender love story in this tale of loyalty and friendship.
Up Next in Black Stories
-
Jemima + Johnny
The friendship of a young white boy and a black girl reaches out across the generations in this uplifting mid-60s short, directed by South African-born actor and anti-Apartheid activist Lionel Ngakane. Against a background media narrative suggesting ever-worsening racial tensions, Jemima + Johnny...
-
White Men Are Cracking Up
Masie Blue is an enigmatic Black Widow figure under investigation by detective Margrave for her involvement in the suicides of successful white men. Through the blurred lines of perception and reality, the myth of the black feminine mystique is explored under the guise of a murder mystery. Writte...
-
Ten Bob in Winter
An early classic of Black British cinema about the intriguing social dynamics that arise as a ten shilling note is passed around the black community. A student borrows ten bob from a white man and then in turn lends it to a natty musician. Later, when the student meets an upstanding member of the...
