Franco Rosso
A boy reads about the attacks of a unknown animal on livestock in the town. He plans to run his own investigation. The so called beast however is also used as a metaphor for every day problems the townsfolk face.
Documentary about the life and career of the 1940s and 1950s boxer Randy Turpin.
Profile of Linton Kwesi Johnson whose poetry is rooted very strongly in feelings of marginalisation and alienation found within urban black populations in the UK. Johnson, born in Jamaica in 1952, has deliberately chosen to align himself with the oral poetic tradition of the West Indies, in which the poet is not isolated and introspective, but has a definite social role as a commentator and interpreter, as a public voice around which people can gather. As he says in the film, "The spoken word has more immediacy: it reaches more people, than written poetry could ever do." The concerns of his poetry are the concerns of the community within which he moves: the young black working-class people of inner city London who, mainly unemployed, are disaffected and disillusioned. […] The film follows Johnson as he read his poems in a school, works at the Keskidee centre, records an LP, and recites at a march in Bradford. […] (British Universities Film & Video Council)
The Mangrove Nine trial resulted from conflict between the police and the Black community in Notting Hill that had escalated from the end of the 1960s onwards. The Mangrove case began when around 150 Black people protested against long-term police harassment of the popular Mangrove Restaurant in Ladbroke Grove. A documentary film, 'The Mangrove Nine' (directed and produced by Franco Rosso), was made in 1973, and includes interviews with the defendants recorded before the final verdicts. The Mangrove Nine film portrays interviews with the defendants recorded before the final verdicts were delivered at the trial, as well as contemporary comments from Ian Macdonald and others.
Young Socialists from Glasgow, Liverpool and Swansea march to London and discuss their economic struggles en route. Supporting them are Ken Loach, Corin Redgrave, Arnold Wesker and other leading cultural figures of the left of British politics. The march is intercut with scenes dramatising parallel injustices in the English Civil War era and earlier - featuring Frances de la Tour in queenly mode as Elizabeth I. The film's unconventional structure also features frequent extracts of the rousing pop concert, with the band Slade, which culminated the epic march.
Documentary on the Harlesden People's Community Council, formed by the people of the Stonebridge estate in Harlesden, Brent, and their struggle to develop a disused London Transport bus terminus into a community complex.
