In October 2024, the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (BIMI) organised “Image, Music, Power: Julian Henriques and Parminder Vir’s Work in Film and Television.” Oliver Fuke curated and presented the programme with Matthew Barrington at the BIMI.
Every Friday for four weeks, from 11th October to 1st November 2024, Julian and I were welcomed and invited to introduce the films. The screenings were followed by a Q&A with young, enthusiastic cinema lovers, students, academics, family, and friends. I travelled back three and four decades in time, recalling how I, too, used to love curating film programmes and spending hours afterwards discussing them in smoke-filled rooms over lukewarm beers.
You can download the programme on my website here.
Let me share some of the highlights of the retrospective, how it made me feel, why I still love cinema and the power of stories that endure.
Musicals: Babymother and We the Ragamuffin
The Babymother and We the Ragamuffin screening was held on October 11th with an engaged audience of students, academics, family, and friends. Our daughters Mala, Anu, and their godparents, Sally Potter and Christopher Shepperd, attended the screening and loved seeing it again. Anjela Lauren Smith, who played the lead in Babymother, was also in the audience and joined us for a Q&A. Following the screening, Linett Kamala, interdisciplinary artist and the “Sound System Queen”, came bounding up to tell me she had worked on Babymother in 1997 as a teenager but was seeing it for the first time on the big screen.
The film’s power and energy struck me again, as did the music, costumes, and portrayal of the now-demolished Stonebridge estate in Harlesden, NW10. Widely considered the first black British musical, the issues in the film—women fighting for their rights—still resonate. Babymother was our first feature film, nurtured over five years while juggling family and work. Our daughter Anu was born soon after we pitched the idea to Film Four. Mala and Anu travelled with us to Paris to deliver the film cans for the Cannes Film Festival selection. Julian remarked that he barely recognised the person he had been when directing it in 1997. It was also a painful reminder that we were ahead of our time because while the audiences loved the film when it was released in 1998, it had faced harsh criticism from black intellectuals. But the film has endured, earning the status of a classic, and it is a joy to watch a younger audience discover and be inspired by it. As the husband-and-wife team, we faced the challenges of bringing this story to the screen because, as Julian has often said, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing because you feel it and know it. Don’t try to find something that you think is going to appeal. Because if it isn’t appealing in your heart and soul, you won’t have the strength to see it through the journey.” The film sparked a provocative question during the Q&A: Why do black directors rarely move beyond their first feature?
France In Africa: Rouch in Reverse and Algeria Women At War
Two days after celebrating my 69th birthday, we returned to BIMI for the second event in the Julian Henriques and Parminder Vir film retrospective held on 18th October. Among the audience were familiar faces and poignant connections—Abimbola from Nigeria with her teenage son and Alexis Shepherd, the son of Clare Shepherd, a journalist from West Indian World who had covered my work during my time as the GLC Ethnic Arts Officer. Clare’s presence in my professional life between 1981 and 1986 came rushing back with the sight of Alexis, reminding me of the history that continues to resonate through these retrospective screenings.
The evening began with a Zoom introduction by Manthia Diawara from Abu Dhabi for Rouch in Reverse. This 1995 film was part of the “African Eyes on Europe” series, which I had pitched to the commissioning editor, Sabina Bubeck, for ZDF/ARTE. My involvement in the production of Rouch in Reverse took me to Paris for four weeks, with Julian holding down the fort at home with our daughters, then two and seven. Amusingly, Manthia seemed to remember things differently, insisting Julian had joined him on the shoot.
Rouch in Reverse was one of four films commissioned alongside Candlelit Landscape (Jakub Barua), Rosemary’s Baby (Rosemary Dei-Boateng), and Letter to Makura (Mweze Ngangura). The series, produced by Formation Films with Julian as Executive Producer and myself as producer, aired on ZDF/ARTE in 1995. By then, I had made over 20 feature documentaries and dramas for the BBC and Channel Four.
During the Q&A, an interesting question emerged: “Is it possible to reverse anthropology?” Reflecting on Rouch in Reverse, it became clear that, despite being the subject of scrutiny, Jean Rouch never truly ceded his position of power to Manthia. The reversal intended in the film was, in fact, incomplete, with Rouch retaining control over the narrative. In contrast, the other three films by African directors in the series were more successful in their reflections, as they did not follow the shadow of an icon like Rouch.
The evening continued with a deeply emotional response to Algeria Women At War, especially from the predominantly female audience. The film captured a pivotal moment in 1992, a turning point for the Algerian women it portrays. A teenager from the audience asked whether the film achieved its goal. I said yes, it did—I captured the profound changes occurring at that moment, a film shaped by its time. The film would have been markedly different if I had made it in 1990 as initially planned, but the Gulf War intervened, delaying the project until 1992. When Channel Four finally greenlit the project, I returned to Algeria to witness firsthand the effects of the Gulf War and the burgeoning civil war, particularly on women.
Questions arose about how the film was received, especially in Algeria, and whether it had ever been screened there. I would need to dive back into the archives to answer that fully. What would it be like to show the film to women today? This question lingered with me as I reflected on the film’s legacy.
Caribbean Cultures: Derek Walcott: Poet of the Island and Denzil’s Dance
Derek Walcott: Poet of the Island (1993) and Denzil’s Dance (2023), thirty years apart, are directed by Julian Henriques. His love for the Caribbean culture has never wavered. The Derek Walcott: Poet of the Island and Denzil’s Dance screening was held on 25th October. Today, watching Derek Walcott: Poet of the Island, which was shot in 1992 and broadcast on BBC in 1993, it is as if I am seeing it for the first time. The film is a masterpiece. It is well-structured, shot, and edited with a loving soundtrack. Derek does not concede to Stuart Hall, two men from the Caribbean locked in their arrogance. While Derek embodies the Caribbean in his voice, walk, and engagement with local people, Stuart is a detached, intellectual observer. The young people seeing the film three decades later are fully engaged.
But I am reliving the making of Derek Walcott. In December 1992, I was 8 months pregnant with our second daughter. My documentary, Algeria Women At War, was broadcast on Channel Four in October 1992. I travelled with Mala, just four years old, to join Julian in St. Lucia, enjoying the beaches while he worked. Julian began editing the film on our return to London in January 1993. At the end of January, we pitched his feature film Babymother to David Aukin at Film Four. I was nine months pregnant. Anu arrived on February 5, 1993, with Julian rushing from the editing room for her home birth.
While Julian wrestled with the film’s structure with his Commissioning editors, I navigated motherhood, production deadlines, and postnatal depression. By March 1993, I was back at the BBC as the Series Producer for the second Developing Stories series, delivering four films while securing script development funding for Babymother. These intense memories came pouring back, the pain buried, the relentless drive to balance being a wife, mother, daughter and producer. Julian and I walked home silently after the screening, both lost in our memories.
Drama Documentary: On Duty
The Julian Henriques and Parminder Vir’s film retrospective concluded with a screening of On Duty, attended by playwright Michael McMillan and director Cassie McFarlane on 1st November 2024. Julian produced the film in 1984, and I, in my role as GLC Ethnic Arts Officer, funded both the stage play and its video adaptation. On Duty is a drama-documentary about Rita Maxim’s ongoing struggle with the management at St Mary’s Hospital in northwest London. Rita Maxim, a Caribbean NHS worker, refused to sign the new privatisation contract imposed by the hospital management and was dismissed.
Marking its 40th anniversary, the screening was rare—no one had seen the film since its Channel 4 broadcast in 1984. Even the director admitted it was her first viewing since its completion. Julian had not seen it since, and a VHS copy we once owned seemed to have vanished. The curators relied on a YouTube upload for the screening with no high-quality copy available.
Kodwo Eshun, a British-Ghanaian writer, theorist and filmmaker, is now revisiting On Duty, writing about its relevance four decades later. The film’s themes—the NHS and the plight of nurses—remain as urgent as ever, though those from Eastern Europe and Africa have replaced today’s West Indian nurses. The evening transported me back in time, surrounded by people I hadn’t seen in 40 years. The film was broadcast on Channel Four’s Eleventh Hour Series. The Black Audio Film Collective organised community screenings across London in 1984.
Watching these films decades later stirs up personal and political memories. The younger generation’s interest in revisiting the 1980s and 1990s is compelling. These films were made while I navigated motherhood, raising my two daughters, born in 1988 and 1993. The films and the times in which they were made are inseparable from the journey of balancing creativity and life’s other demands. Thank you, Julian, my collaborator and lifelong partner, for continuing the journey.
I want to express my heartfelt thank you to Oliver Fuke and Matthew Barrington for their imagination and desire to revisit these moments. Oliver Fuke is an independent researcher and curator at Goldsmiths University. He programmed the films, wrote the programme notes, sourced the movies, and mobilised the audiences. Matthew Barrington, researcher, curator, and manager of the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, was responsible for the screenings and the warm welcome.
About Parminder Vir OBE
Over a 40-year distinguished career, Parminder Vir OBE has passionately devoted her life to amplifying untold narratives and resourcing the skills and imagination of underserved communities. At the core of her mission lies an unshakable faith in the transformative potential of ideas and stories to ignite profound change. Her diverse expertise spans African entrepreneurship, an impressive portfolio as an award-winning film and television producer, and unwavering advocacy for the arts and culture.
Currently, Parminder Vir lends her strategic insights as an Advisory Board Member of Mamamoni Limited and HelpMum, and contributes as a Narrative Advisor at Mustard Venture Agency. She is also a director of Zikora Media and Arts, an inspirational cultural institution for Africa.
In her prior role as CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Advisory Board Member, she masterminded and executed a comprehensive entrepreneurship programme, impacting over 10,000 African entrepreneurs across 54 African nations from 2014 to 2021. Her tireless commitment to championing entrepreneurship as the keystone for Africa’s social and economic advancement continues to be a resounding call to action.
