Multicultural TV in Europe

+ intro by writer and researcher Momtaza Mehri

Europe offered a counterpoint to the UK in race relations. These analyses changed over time to be more focused on personal experiences.

  • Total running time 126min

Bandung File: License to Kill

Channel 4 1985. Director Greg Lanning. 27min. Digital

Black on Europe: France

BBC 1991. Series Producer Onyekachi Wambu. 30min. Digital

Flâner (france)

UK 2015. Director Cecile Emeke. 11min. Digital

The Body’s Legacies, Pt. 2: The Postcolonial Body, 2018

France 2018. Director Kader Attia. 48min. Digital

Early explorations of multicultural TV looked at Europe, through the lens of interconnected forms of global oppression. Over time, focus on the lived experiences of multi-ethnic people increased. Here we juxtapose documentaries focusing on the lives of racialised communities in France to reveal how conversations, cultures and analyses of lived experience have become foregrounded in non-fiction.

Momtaza Mehri is a writer and researcher working across poetry, criticism, education and radio. She was the Poet-in-Residence at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, as well as the former Young People’s Poet Laureate for London. Her debut poetry collection Bad Diaspora Poems won the 2023 Forward Prize for Best First Collection, as well as an Eric Gregory Prize, Somerset Maugham Award, and a Sky Arts Award.