Maureen Blackwood
Maureen Blackwood | |
|---|---|
| Born | 30 July 1960 London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Mo Blackwood |
| Education | City of London Polytechnic |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, Script Development Executive |
| Known for | Founding member of Sankofa Film and Video Collective |
| Notable work | The Passion of Remembrance (1987) |
Maureen Blackwood (born 30 July 1960) is a British filmmaker and founding member of Sankofa Film and Video Collective – a collective dedicated to promoting and producing black films by black directors.[1][2][3] Her films consist of experimental narrative and documentary works that examine black life in Britain from a variety of perspectives.[4]
Life and career
Born in London, England, to Jamaican parents, Blackwood attended City and Islington College in London, followed by the University of Westminster (then Polytechnic of Central London), at which she obtained a degree in Media studies.[4][5]
One of her tutors introduced her to an African-American man who worked at the British Film Institute named Jim Pines. He in turn introduced her to Isaac Julien, Martina Attille, Nadine Marsh-Edwards and Robert Crusz, with whom she founded Sankofa Film and Video Collective in 1983.[6][7]
Her only feature is The Passion of Remembrance (1987), co-written and co-directed with Julien. She followed this up with the narrative shorts Perfect Image? (1988) and Home away from Home (1993), and the documentary A Family Called Abrew (1992).[7] Home away from Home was an official selection for Critics' Week at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[5]
She was a young member of the Camden Black Sisters, and used stories of older members in the film The Passion of Remembrance.[6]
In 2003, she graduated from a year-long Script Development Executive Training Initiative backed by UK Film Council. She then went on to work as a Script Development Executive for several companies, including Forest Whitaker's Spirit Dance UK.[5]
Credited as Mo Blackwood, she co-wrote the feature-length screenplay Shop of Dreams (2005) for the Estonian production company Exit Films.[5]
In 2005, she was selected to take part in a ten-day workshop with the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Blackwood's short film Lift Stories from the workshop was one of four films selected by Channel Four to screen as part of 3 Minute Wonder.[5]
Filmography
- The Passion of Remembrance (1987)
- Perfect Image? (1988)
- A Family Called Abrew (1992)
- Home away from Home (1993)
- Lift Stories (2005)
References
- ^ Dixon, Wheeler W. (1998). "Images of Empire Lost and Empire Regained". The Transparency of Spectacle Meditations on the Moving Image. State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791437810.
- ^ Hayward, Susan (2013). "Black Cinema - UK". Cinema Studies The Key Concepts. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 9780415538138.
- ^ Murphy, Robert (2019). Directors in British and Irish Cinema - A Reference Companion. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 9781838715335.
- ^ a b "Filmmaker - Maureen Blackwood". WMM - Women Make Movies. Archived from the original on 2024-08-13. Retrieved 2025-06-21.
- ^ a b c d e "Tate Film - Rewind Sankofa" (PDF). Tate.
- ^ a b Alexander, Karen (24 July 2019). "Maureen Blackwood: "I wanted to make films about lives and issues that were forgotten"". British Film Institute. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
- ^ a b Williams, Patrick (2001). "Blackwood, Maureen". In Donnell, Alison (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781134700240.