Horace Ové, ‘John Lennon giving Michael X his hair to auction, 1969
Film
Free

Generation Get Up! Weekend | Screenings

FREE
Sat 22 & Sun 23 Jun 2019
11.00 - 18.00
Drop-in
Screening Room
South Wing

All screenings are free to drop in to on a first come first served basis without booking on both Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 June.

PRESSURE | HORACE OVÉ | 11.00 - 13.15
Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted British-born black youths. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Tony, a bright school-leaver, son of West Indian immigrants, who finds himself torn between his parents' church-going conformity and his brother's Black Power militancy. As his initially high hopes are repeatedly dashed – he cannot find work anywhere, potential employers treat him with suspicion because of his colour – his sense of alienation grows. In a bid to find a sense of belonging, he joins his black friends who, estranged from their submissive parents, seek a sense of purpose in the streets and in chases with the police.


PREMIERE: IN THOSE DAYS | DON LETTS | 13.30 - 14.30
Don Letts’ reputation was firmly established in the late ‘70s as the DJ who single-handedly turned a whole generation of punks on to reggae. He currently presents the weekly radio show Culture Clash Radio on BBC 6 Music and still works as a DJ nationally and internationally.

Somerset House hosts the first public screening of this intimate documentary featuring testimonies from the first wave of Afro-Caribbean’s who came to fill the labour shortage in Britain’s battered post-war economy. Lett’s documentary reveals what life was like, and how their arrival would be the catalyst for far reaching changes in British society.


1000 LONDONERS: WINDRUSH GENERATIONS | CHOCOLATE FILMS | 14.45 - 15.45
1000 Londoners is a Chocolate Films Project. It offers an insight into the lives of 1000 people who consider themselves to be Londoners, taking in all ages, religions, race, income, interests and opinions.

This Windrush Generations screening discovers the lives of 5 generations of Londoners with Caribbean heritage. In this season meet comedian and singer Kenny Lynch, Dame Jocelyn Barrow and teacher Sara Burke amongst many others.


SOON GONE: A WINDRUSH CHRONICLE | BBC FOUR | SATURDAY 16.00 - 18.00 SUNDAY 18.00 - 20.00
The eight 15-minute monologues that make up Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle look at what happened after the arrival of the Windrush generation in 1948 and challenge our collective understanding of what it means to be part of the African-Caribbean community in modern-day Britain.

The series starts with Eunice, so full of hope and ambition when she arrived to work as a nurse in London, but who is left contemplating the mismatch between the England she had imagined, and the vastly inferior reality via stories spanning 70 years and across four generations. 

Curated by Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE as a tribute to his parents. Co-produced with Sir Lenny Henry’s production company Douglas Road and Young Vic Productions for BBC Television.

Somerset House is grateful to Art Fund and to all other Generation Get Up! weekend supporters