FilmInk
Could not be more pertinent, even if its treatment is somewhat workmanlike and dry.
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White Riot
Documentary chonicling the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement in 1970s UK. RAR was formed during a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation's youth, RAR's multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance.
Founder Red Saunders explains: "We peeled away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika". The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978's huge concert in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse, Tom Robinson and The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR's message to the masses.
Winner of Best Feature (Special Mention of the Generation 14plus International Jury) at Berlin Film Festival 2020, and Best Documentary at London Film Festival 2019.
2019Rating: MA15+, Strong coarse language80 minsUK
DocumentaryMusic
White Riot / Reviews
Little White Lies
It's a cliché to describe a film as "essential viewing", but this really is.
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The Guardian
An excellent brief documentary about a heroic grassroots political movement whose importance reveals itself more clearly in retrospect with every year that passes.
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The New York Times
Especially compelling in its depiction of political organization in the analog age.
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Time Out
It dispenses with expositional voiceover and clocks in at a lean 80 mins. But all of that pales beside its central message.
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Stuff
Arriving with near perfect timing, White Riot is a powerful, persuasive look at a group of people who, rather than being superheroes, were simply “ordinary, anti-racist citizens”.
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