Black British Film, TV and Music

Black British film and television has played a significant role in the popularising of Black British music forms, through the creation of iconic soundtracks, scores, or/and the casting of noted Black musicians in their productions. This panel brings together leading directors, producers and musicians to consider how their productions used the archive of Black British music in their film and television work.

This event is part of a series of screenings and talks curated by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka for The Music is Black Festival from East Bank at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Courttia Newland is the author of nine books including his debut, The Scholar. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. As a screenwriter he has co-written two episodes of the Steve McQueen BBC series Small Axe, and an episode of The Woman in the Wall for BBC/Showtime. His latest novel, A River Called Time, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award Science Fiction Book of the Year 2022. He is currently working on a collection of essays, The Art of Opposition published by Faber in 2026

Dennis Bovell MBE is a pioneering Barbados-born, UK-based reggae guitarist, producer, and composer, renowned as a key figure in British reggae and the creator of "lovers rock". He co-founded the band Matumbi, produced for acts including The Slits and Linton Kwesi Johnson, and wrote and produced the lover’s rock song ‘Silly Games’ and the legendary score for the Black British film Babylon. He was awarded an MBE in 2021.

Ed Bailie is a music supervisor for film and television productions, on which his responsibilities include the sourcing and licensing of commercial music, overseeing the original score, commissioning original songs, and managing on-camera musical performances. His past productions include Netflix drama series Top Boy, Sir Steve McQueen's celebrated film anthology Small Axe, Nicôle Lecky's musical drama Mood (BAFTA Best Original Music: Fiction 2023), BBC/Paramount+ drama The Gold, and 2026 Netflix crime drama Legends. Before moving into music supervision, Ed worked in music publishing at Blue Mountain Music (founded by Island Records’ Chris Blackwell), representing the catalogues of artists including Bob Marley, Toots & The Maytals, Kano, Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, Baaba Maal, Justice and Amadou & Mariam.

Dionne Edwards is a screenwriter and director. Her debut feature PRETTY RED DRESS, starring Natey Jones, Alexandra Burke and newcomer Temilola Olatunbosun, was produced with the support of the BFI and BBC Film. PRETTY RED DRESS had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2022 and was released in June 2023 to overwhelmingly positive reviews

Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka is Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society in the School of European Languages, Culture and Society within UCL’s Faculty of the Arts and Humanities, and Professor in Practice at the British Film Institute. Nwonka’s scholarship broadly centres on race and the humanities. He is the author of the books Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Film (2023), Black Arsenal (2024) and the co-author of the forthcoming book Race and Racism in the Creative and Cultural Industries (2026). He is Academic in Residence for the V&A East’s Music is Black.

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