Black Power Salute

Dispatches

An in-depth look at news stories. Documentaries that take you behind the scenes giving an insight into people's lives or institutions.

When Tariq Ali Met Malcolm X

One was a Black human rights leader who had achieved global notoriety. The other was a young Marxist Oxford student from Pakistan looking to bring radical change to the British establishment. When they met in December 1964, Malcolm X's life of activism was about to come to a tragic end, but Tariq Ali's journey was just beginning. This is the story of a brief but impactful friendship that, 50 years later, still ripples through England today, told by Ali, civil rights historians, and rarely seen footage of Malcolm X's overseas visit.

Rivers of Blood: 50 Years On

An exploration of immigration in Britain over the half century since Conservative MP Enoch Powell made his controversial speech. Issues surrounding race, religion, integration and multiculturalism are examined.

The Talk

Several well-known Black Britons share their poignant, funny and emotional experiences of the conversations parents have to help their children face racism.

Tokyo Olympiad

This impressionistic portrait of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics pays as much attention to the crowds and workers as it does to the actual competitive events. Highlights include an epic pole-vaulting match between West Germany and America, and the final marathon race through Tokyo's streets. Two athletes are highlighted: Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, who receives his second gold medal, and runner Ahamed Isa from Chad, representing a country younger than he is.

Love Meetings

Pier Paolo Pasolini sets out to interview Italians about sex, apparently their least favorite thing to talk about in public: he asks children if they know where babies come from; asks old and young women if they support gender equality; asks both sexes if a woman's virginity still matters, what do they think of homosexuality, if divorce should be legal, or if they support the recent abolition of brothels. He interviews blue-collar workers, intellectuals, college students, rural farmers, the bourgeoisie, and every other kind of people, painting a vivid portrait of a rapidly-industrializing Italy, hanging between modernity and tradition — toward both of which Pasolini shows equal distrust.

Hearts and Minds

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.