The Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
17th annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival
“Cinematic Cities”
Playing Away
Screening date: Wednesday April 7, 2010 - 7:30 pm
137 Isenberg SOM
Synopsis of Playing Away:
1. “Playing Away.” British Film Institute. 2003.
<http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/508052/synopsis.html>
A synopsis of Playing Away that introduces the intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts of the
film.
Reviews of Playing Away:
1. Canby, Vincent. “Playing Away, A Comedy.” The New York Times. 13 March, 1987.
<http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0DE2DA153EF930A25750C0A961948260>
In his review, Canby categorizes Playing Away as a clever community-comedy. Starring a
strong cast, the main characters of the film do not fall into the normal, predictable role that can
be found in other comedies.
2. “Playing Away.” Time Out London. <http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/71188/playing_away.html>
“Monocle, pipe in clenched jaw, retired colonel and vicar showing slides of the Masai in the
village hall for Third World Week - all this lacks is Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne for a
picture of the Home Counties in the '30s according to Agatha Christie. The trouble is, it's set in
the present.”
Information on Horace Ové:
1. Hamilton, Denise. “Reception for British Filmmaker Horace Ové.” Black Association of
Documentary Filmmakers West. 30 September, 2009.
<http://www.badwest.org/news/horace-ove-reception/>
This article talks about a special reception held for director Horace Ové and provides a brief
description of his works and career as the first Black British filmmaker to direct a feature-length
film.
2. “Horace Ové.” Imdb.com.
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0654048/>
A list of the director’s achievments as a director, writer, producer, and actor.
3. “Horace Ové.” Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. 2007.
<http://www.trinidadandtobagofilm.com/filmfestival/filmmakers.htm#Horace_Ov%C3%A9>
A brief biography on Ové’s career and his various exhibitions, including the National Portrait
Gallery in 2005, the Victoria, Albert Museum, and Barbican in London, as well as his many
awards including the The Queen with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire award for
his services to the film industry in Britain.
4. Ward, Paul. "Screenonline: Ové, Horace (1939-) Biography." BFI Screenonline.
<http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/507421/>.
Ové started his career with a surrealist film, which he never completed in favor of finishing
documentary and short films highlighting underground and sub-cultures in Britian. Ové holds the
honor of releasing the first feature length film by a Black director in Britain, Pressure (1975).
Ové is not shy to controversy, and has retained the political voice which shines through his films.
Interviews with Horace Ové:
1. “Horace Ové 4.” Youtube.com. 26 November, 2009.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjJeLSvzoLU>
In this short online interview, director Horace Ové discusses his experience as a black
filmmaker.
2. Leonard, Josanne. “Weekend Feature: The Ghost of Hing King Estate.” Caribbean 360.
October 5, 2007.
< http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/12463.html>
Ové provides a retrospective look on his upbringing in Belmont, the influences of theater in his
early life in the Caribbean, and the impact of European films on his personal and professional
outlooks. The director believes, “That’s why most of my films, television features and
documentaries are based on socio-political themes whether they’ve been made in the UK, India,
or the Caribbean. In all my works, I’m telling the stories of real people and their lives […] I’ve
always made films to help society to see itself and in that process hope that people can work
things out by relating what they’ve seen to their own personal lives or the society around them.
That’s an important role of art and film is just one medium.”
Reviews on Other Selected Works by Horace Ové:
1. Home, Stewart. “Pressure.” Mute. 23 October, 2005.
<http://www.metamute.org/en/Pressure>
Ové’s film Pressure deals with institutional racism and police brutality in a bold way without
ever falling into the trap of treating such matters simplistically. The film is partly improvised,
using documentary conventions in his filming, however, the viewer is never allowed to forget
that it is a work of fiction.
Toppin, Julia. “Pressure.” British Film Institute.
<http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/480497/index.html>
Toppin presents a partial synopsis of Pressure, focusing mainly on the correlation of the film’s
themes to modern Britain, “Pressure is a product of its time, but the issues and themes it explores
remain relevant to the black experience in Britain today, including the cycle of educational
deprivation, poverty, unemployment and antisocial behavior […] Pressure remains a key Black
British film, which helps to demonstrate how modern multicultural Britain was shaped.”
Information on Screenwriter Caryl Phillips:
1. “Awards.” CarylPhillips.com.
<http://www.carylphillips.com/awards.html>
A list of awards achieved by writer Caryl Phillips from 1984 to 2007.
2. “Biography.” CarylPhillips.com.
<http://www.carylphillips.com/biography.html>
A brief biography of Caryl Phillip’s career as a writer and professor. It discusses Phillip’s
experience in the theater and includes a list of his plays and novels.
3. Jaggi, Maya. "Rites of Passage." Guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited 2010, 3
Nov. 2001. Web. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/nov/03/fiction.artsandhumanities>.
In Jaggi’s article, Phillips reflects on his migratory past and its effects on his writing. Jaggi
chronicles Phillips’ experiences from his childhood in Britain, to his first story written at fifteen
years old, to his year as a visiting scholar in Amherst, to the opening of his film adaptation of
The Mystic Masseur in 2001.
4. Ledent, Bénédicte. “Caryl Phillips: A Master of Ambiguity.” University of Liège. 2005.
<http://www.l3.ulg.ac.be/phillips/bledent_cphillips.pdf>
Ledent discusses Phillips’ use of ‘otherness’ in his novels and screenplays. Growing up with a
very eclectic identity, Phillips wrote to bring sensitivity and understanding to his characters,
outsiders in their respective stories and their journeys.
5. Vinuesa, Maya G. “AfroEuropa in Conversation With Caryl Phillips.” Journal of
Afroeuropean Studies 1.3 (2007).
< http://journal.afroeuropa.eu/index.php/afroeuropa/article/view/41/64>
An interview with Caryl Phillips by Maya G. Vinuesa. Phillips speaks of his childhood and the
stereotypes associated with black people in 1980s British society. He also goes into depth on his
early beginnings of his writing as a child. Traveling also greatly influenced Phillips’ writing. He
speaks on James Baldwin’s works and their themes of sexuality, especially in the novel
Giovanni’s Room. Lastly, Phillips comments the characters in his stories, especially focusing on
the construction of female characters.
Scholarly Articles on Black British Filmmaking:
1. Blackwood, Maureen and June Givanni. “Black Film-making in Europe.” Screen 29.4 (1988):
114-119.
<http://screen.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/29/4/114.pdf>
Blackwood and Givanni’s study notes that black filmmaking is only a recent trend in European
history. The authors note the intersection of influences present in the black filmmaking sphere,
“It is precisely the reinterpretation of film styles, coupled with the retrieval and reassessment of
certain aspects of indigenous cultures, ways of seeing, and expression that mark the ‘hybrid’
nature of black cinema in Europe” (114). The article covers themes of isolation, alienation, postcolonial/post-imperial migration, and the structural/industrial barriers to lucrative filmmaking in
the form of funding and distribution disparities. It is interesting to understand that the definition
of blackness varies from European country to country, relative to location (Blackwood and
Givanni 115).
2. Karamath, Joel. “Shooting Black Britain.” Index on Censorship; 2007, Vol. 36 Issue 1,
p142-147.
<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=2&sid=7e23f091-8bac-466ea4a581b7694051e9%40sessionmgr13>
In this article Joel Karamath asks ‘whatever happened to black British cinema?’ With few
exceptions, it remains a minority pursuit, dogged by the lack of a viable domestic audience and
swept away in the Hollywood slipstream. Karamath explores a variety of films made by black
British directors including Ové’s film Pressure and how it highlights some of the smoldering
issues that were to become major battlegrounds of the early Thatcher years.
Information Compiled by:
Ken Wong, Kristin Vaselacopoulos, Allison Mulvey, Anthony Putvinski, Sarah Mias,
and Mindi Harris