My first documentary film sheds new light on the complexities of British history in the 1970s and 80s. BEYOND 'There's always black issue Dear' explores and celebrates black LGBTQ identities, and demarcates the huge influence that Black LGBTQ culture has had upon Fashion, Fine art, Dance, Music and Language, much of which has been appropriated by the cultural mainstream, but is only beginning to be reflected in our cultural spaces. The cast vividly recall daring to be different. Creating their own identities in a time when, ‘if you were black you could be either Reggae or Soul’, the film spans an era, where Soul and Disco met Punk and Blitz Kids in underground clubs, like The Four Aces in Dalston and Crackers in Soho, and on through to the explosion of queer culture at Tony Gordon and Leigh Bowery's Taboo and Michael and Gerlinde Costiff's Kinky Gerlinky. Beyond captures a vital historical period. Often copied, never bettered. Living out loud in Thatcher’s Britain. Unapologetically black. Proudly LGBT. A cultural scene that changed Britain reunites to tell it like it was. Here are the Trailblazers!
