“Image, Music, Power: Julian Henriques and Parminder Vir’s Work in Film and Television”: Event 4

By Parminder OBE

October 28, 2024

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Screening of On Duty (1984) and panel discussion with director Cassie McFarlane, producer Julian Henriques, playwright Michael McMillan, and Parminder Vir OBE.

This retrospective closes with a special screening of On Duty (1984), marking its fortieth anniversary. This drama-documentary about Rita Maxim’s ongoing struggle with the management at St Mary’s Hospital in northwest London. Maxim, a Caribbean NHS worker, refused to sign the new privatisation contract imposed by the hospital management and was subsequently dismissed. This incident was secretly recorded and included in the film. On Duty was also able to capture the collective support among the hospital’s Black health workers, who were fearful of losing their jobs if they didn’t sign the privatisation contract. Made for Channel 4’s Eleventh Hour Series, this film was directed by Cassie McFarlane, produced by Julian Henriques, with a cast that included Pearl Wilson, Michael Hamilton, Sylvester Williams, Yvonne Weeks, and Lyn Langridge.

On Duty was originally a play, written by Michael McMillan and directed by Michael Hamilton. It was first performed at the Carlton Community Centre, northwest London, in 1983, and subsequently toured to various community-based venues across London. In her capacity as the Greater London Council Ethnic Arts Officer (1982-1986), Parminder Vir funded the On Duty stage and video production from the GLC Ethnic Arts Sub-Committee in 1984.

 

Notes

Spanning musical, documentary, agit-prop and essay film, this retrospective looks at some of Professor Julian Henriques and Parminder Vir OBE’s work as directors and producers in film and television over several decades. The programme has been developed with the intention not only of screening a series of important works but also of considering the conditions of possibility, the political, social and aesthetic connections, that make movements and moments possible. The screenings and discussions should appeal to the younger generation looking for inspiration from the film history they’ve inherited as well as those who were there at the time.

The 1980s fundamentally transformed British film and television, witnessing the launch of Channel 4 (1982) and the emergence of an independent Black British cinema. As this series attests, Henriques and Vir were active in both. In 1987, they established the production company Formation Films and made Exit No Exit, a thirty-minute Orpheus-inspired dance drama set in the London Underground, directed by Henriques for Dance on Four. Previously, Henriques produced another work for Channel 4 which is included in this retrospective and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year: On Duty (1984). Directed by Cassie McFarlane and adapted from the play by Michael McMillan, this drama-documentary about the true story of Rita Maxim, a Caribbean NHS worker, who fought the management of St Mary’s Hospital and refused to sign the new privatisation contract they attempted to impose.

In the early 1980s, Vir worked at the Commonwealth Institute and, together with Jim Pines, co-organised the Black Film Festival at the Commonwealth Institute in London in 1982. She then began working at Greater London Council (GLC) and, as Imruh Bakari has recently noted, convened the Third Eye: London’s Festival of Third World Cinema (1983) collaborating with others including June Givanni and Lionel Ngakane. As the GLC Ethnic Arts Officer (1982- 1986), Vir developed the policy for funding the Black film and video sector, an initiative that paved the way for funding important workshops in London, including Black Audio Film Collective, Sankofa Film and Video, Ceddo Film and Video Workshop, and Retake Film and Video Collective, as well as independent production companies like Kuumba Productions and Penumbra Productions. These crucial events and initiatives have led to a revolutionary body of work and discourse that artists, curators and scholars continue to grapple with today. In 1986, Vir presented a showreel of Black and Asian filmmakers to the editorial staff in the BBC, where she would be employed, eventually as series producer, until 1994, working with many important filmmakers from across the globe, including Deepa Dhanraj, Gaston Kaboré, Michel Khleifi and Raoul Peck.

 

Biographies

Professor Julian Henriques

Professor Julian Henriques is convenor of the MA Cultural Studies programme, director of the Topology Research Unit and co-founder of Sound System Outernational research group in the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London. Previously Julian was head of film and television at CARIMAC at the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. Julian researches street cultures, music and technologies including those of the reggae sound system. He has credits as a writer-director with the feature film Babymother, a reggae musical, the improvised short drama We the Ragamuffin and as a producer with numerous BBC and Channel Four documentaries; a sound artist with the sculpture Knots & Donuts at the Tate Modern, a founding editor with the Ideology & Consciousness journal and as an author with others Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity and the monographs Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems Performance Techniques and Ways of Knowing and Sonic Media: the Street Technology of the Jamaican Sound System (forthcoming). He is a co-founding trustee of the Stuart Hall Foundation and the PI on an ERC Consolidator research grant (2021 – 2025), Sonic Street Technologies.

 

Parminder Vir OBE

With a professional career spanning four decades, Parminder Vir OBE has dedicated her life to amplifying untold narratives and empowering underserved communities. Central to her mission is an unwavering belief in the transformative potential of ideas and stories to ignite profound change. Her work has championed African Entrepreneurship, brought untold stories to film and television, and nurtured creativity in the arts and culture. She is currently writing a memoir that interweaves the many facets of her career.

As CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Advisory Board Member from 2014-2012, Vir designed and led a groundbreaking entrepreneurship programme that impacted over 10,000 entrepreneurs across 54 African nations. She remains a staunch advocate for entrepreneurship as a key driver of Africa’s social and economic development, reshaping the continent’s narrative through the stories of its entrepreneurs. Vir continues to offer strategic guidance as an Advisory Board Member for several African enterprises and promotes structured approaches to African entrepreneurship through writing, speaking engagements, and mentorship.

An award-winning film and television producer with 30 years of experience, Vir has produced for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and more. She co-founded the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN), advocating for greater diversity in UK media. As an investment manager at Ingenious Media, she managed the £40 million World Cinema Fund. Also, she served as a nonexecutive director at Goldcrest Films, advising on a £20 million capital fund for Oscar-winning films.

Vir’s influence extends to government boards, including non-executive roles at the Department of Culture, Media and Sports, the UK Film Council, the UK India Business Council, and the UKTI Asia Task Force, shaping international strategies and policies.

In 2002, Vir was awarded an OBE for her contributions to film and television, and in 2010, she received an Honorary MA from the University for the Creative Arts. Born in Punjab, India, she moved to England at age ten and is married to Professor Julian Henriques.