Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.
Lauren Ekene Nwenwu: My article is on how (black/white) mixed-race identity is represented in contemporary British films as existing outside the limiting, socially constructed paradigms of black and white identity: not as simply a combination of both, but with its own qualities of representational value. This is not to say that mixed-race struggles and experiences are harder or more difficult than black experiences, just that they can be different. It’s about how this concept started to change from its degrading and caricatured beginnings, coming to fruition in British films during the 1990s, using one film in particular – The Girl with Brains in Her Feet – to demonstrate this. Despite the film’s concerns with racial identity, when released in 1997 it was denied classification as a “black film” by its makers, leaving it floating in the ether of films on social struggle in British cinema. The author of the original source material expressed frustration with this decision, and how the subject matter was perhaps too ahead of its time for marketers to understand. It appears that because the film was venturing a look at a non-stereotypical third generation black British experience, it was too confusing for distributors to categorize. The Girl with Brains in Her Feet is a “British identity” film – which are very often typified as being intrinsically white narratives – as well as being a “black film,” sat between a color divide in more ways than one. When released, the film’s misinterpretation led to muted branding, and lack of consideration for a ground-breaking depiction of a neglected, marginalized experience. Consequentially it is almost unknown, and excluded from seminal lists about British films about race, limited to cursory mentions if any, in black British film archives.
FM: What research and/or methodologies do you incorporate in your article?
LEN: I began with sourcing and comparing American and British theory on the representations of mixed-race identity in cinema, which was largely one-sided in favor of the former. I used that as a springboard for constructing a timeline, from the 1930s to the present day, of British films and television shows which featured mixed-race characters as central to the narrative – the list was startlingly short. I also got in contact with and subsequently interviewed Jo Hodges, the original writer and creator of the book the film was based on. We talked at length about her inspirations for the book, her views on the film, and various approaches to depicting a spectrum of black/mixed-race experiences onscreen in Britain. She sadly passed away in July of 2017, and I can quite honestly say meeting her was an unforgettably inspirational experience.
FM: Describe the original context for/when writing this article while an undergraduate student.
LEN: I wrote it as a part of my undergraduate dissertation originally comparing three films – The Girl with Brains in Her Feet, Shane Meadows’s A Room for Romeo Brass, and Amma Asante’s Belle.
FM: How has your department and/or institution supported your work in film and media?
LEN: Various members of the department from Warwick continued to mentor me in my career pursuits, as did the careers advisory department, helping me to prepare for interviews, and networking events in the film industry.
FM: How has your faculty mentor fostered your advancement as a film scholar?
LEN: My dissertation supervisor Julie Lobalzo Wright was actually the one who told me about Film Matters – thank you, Julie! – and has since suggested conferences relevant to my interests which I might wish to attend.
FM: How has the Film Matters editorial and publication process impacted the development/evolution of your article?
LEN: It’s been great for me to have something reinforce that the handing-in of my dissertation in my final year of university was not the end of my passion for this subject, nor my value of its importance and relevance. There were times during the editing process when the editorial board made suggestions and asked questions which opened up ideas about my article that I’d never even considered before, but made absolute sense, and helped advance my analysis even further. The process sparked in me a desire to revisit my dissertation, and the material I compiled during my research, to conduct further studies of contemporary and historical representations of mixed-race characters, and to write and publish more to help advance the landscape of critical theory on British mixed-race identity in film in the future.
FM: What audience do you hope to reach with your Film Matters article and/or what impact do you hope it has on the field of film studies?
LEN: I hope my article speaks to those interested in identity studies, representations of race in British cinema, and black British cinema. I hope that it helps inspire more discourse, more questioning, and more searching for better understanding and recognition of other underrepresented identities in British films.
FM: What are your future plans?
LEN: Over the next year I have plans in place to secure an internship in the screen industry – focally film and television – based in London, whilst continuing to research and study the subject of this article, writing and reading as much as I can about the changes occurring in theory on mixed-race identity and black British cinema. In the future I hope to return to academia and secure a place studying for a film studies MA in London or the US.
Author Biography
Lauren Ekene Nwenwu is a graduate of the University of Warwick, class of 2017, with a bachelor’s degree in film and literature. Lauren is originally from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, UK; Lauren’s core academic interests are in race, identity studies, and diaspora culture representations in film, television, and other media.
