Maureen Blackwood
In 1983 Blackwood, along with Isaac Julien, Martina Attile, Robert Crusz, and Nadine Marsh–Edwards, co–founded the Sankofa Film and Video Collective. With Sankofa’s other filmmakers, Blackwood has produced a number of experimental narrative and documentary works that examine black life in Britain from various perspectives. She has been described as “a formidable figure in black filmmaking in Britain” by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. Blackwood’s first Sankofa film, THE PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE, was an 80–minute project co-written and co-directed with Isaac Julien, which Women Film Directors called “a moving, elegant feast of images.” Blackwood’s next work, also done at Sankofa, was PERFECT IMAGE? In 1988. Maureen has also worked on many of Sankofa’s other films such as DREAMING RIVERS, and LOOKING FOR LANGSTON. Maureen Blackwood, of Jamaican heritage, was born in 1960. She attended City and Islington College in London, and then earned a degree in media studies from the University of Westminster
AVAILABLE FROM TWN
A Family Called AbrewMaureen Blackwood
Producer: Sankofa Film and Video Collective
1992, 42 min., Color, UK
This documentary profiles a fascinating family that has been based in Scotland since the end of the 19th century. It also traces the history of people of African descent living in Europe before the great migrations of the 1950s and 1960s. The Abrew family worked in Vaudeville, theatre, and later, in...
The Passion of RemembranceMaureen Blackwood & Isaac Julien
Producer: Sankofa Film and Video Collective
1986, 80 min., Color, UK
This first feature film by one of Britain's most respected workshops, is a multi-layered look at issues of concern to Black youth during the turbulent 80s--the Thatcher era. Combining documentary footage and allegorical monologues, the narrative follows Maggie Baptise, a young British-born West Indi...
Perfect Image?Maureen Blackwood
Producer: Sankofa Film and Video Collective
1988, 30 min., Color, UK
This fast-paced examination of Black women's struggles to assert their own positive self-images features two female characters who seem to represent archetypical extremes. The film is a visual feast, set up as a series of scenes and dialogues between poles of dark and light complexions. The women ac...
