WICFF 2026: Redefined — Black History of Boxing + Breaking Barriers

A double bill on Black British sporting history, followed by a talkback with filmmaker Kane Dunn and boxing historian Dr Spencer Fearon.
About this Event

CHANGING THE GAME · BLACK ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE

The Windrush International Caribbean Film Festival presents a double bill about athletes who entered institutions that were not built for them, and changed those institutions from the inside.

REDEFINED: BLACK HISTORY OF BOXING

Director: Kane Dunn

More than two hundred years of Black British boxing, and the generations of fighters who met racial barriers inside the ring and out. From the earliest Black prizefighters in Georgian Britain through to the modern era, the film traces a lineage that British sporting history has rarely told as a continuous story.

BREAKING BARRIERS: THE PAULA DUNN OLYMPIC STORY

Director: Kane Dunn

The story of Paula Dunn MBE — Jamaican-British sprinter, mother, coach and pioneering leader. As an athlete she was six-time AAAs national champion over 100m, took bronze at the 1990 European Championships and won five Commonwealth Games medals for England, including gold. After London 2012 she became Paralympic head coach at British Athletics, the first woman ever appointed to a head coach role by UK Athletics, and went on to lead the GB programme through the Paris Games. She was appointed MBE for services to athletics in 2019.

TALKBACK

Kane Dunn — director of both films.

Dr Spencer Fearon — boxing historian, promoter and broadcaster. Born in Brixton, he fought professionally under the name "The Spirit" before becoming the youngest Black promoter in Britain, founding Hard Knocks Boxing Promotions in 2009 with a reputation for genuine 50-50 match-ups. He has managed British and Commonwealth champions, commentated for Setanta and Sky Sports, and is known across the sport as "Mr Knowledge."

Hosted by Black History Walks.

Presented by the Windrush International Caribbean Film Festival in partnership with Black History Walks and African Odysseys.

WICFF brings together stories of migration, identity, resistance, belonging and transformation from across the Caribbean, Africa and the global diaspora.