Black Screen Classics

Big Screen Classics is a monthly themed film series that sees BFI staff mining the British Film Institute's extraordinary archives to curate a season of films held under a loose theme, with every title in the series screening for just £9.50! Previous themes have included everything from swimming pools and hotels, to nightclubbing and courtrooms, creature features and cross-dressing.

The latest Big Screen Classics series is titled Black Screen Classics and explores a wide array of famous and lesser-known Black films, with an emphasis on features that you are unlikely to see anywhere else.

From groundbreaking first features, heartfelt childhood tales and esoteric vampire films to iconic Queer classics, Dancehall musicals and Black British favourites, this is your chance to explore Black cinema in all its glory.

From Senegal to Chad and Brooklyn to Harlesden, soak in the breadth and variety of Black film and filmmakers from the 1960s through to the 2010s.

Highlights of the series include; Djibril Diop Mambéty's enduring classic of African cinema Touki Bouki, Horace Ové's startling debut feature Pressure, Marlon Riggs’ classic essay film about the Black Gay experience in 1980s America Tongues Untied, Spike Lee's semi-autobiographical Crooklyn, and a breakthrough performance by Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the 2013 period drama Belle.