2 - Audience Wants
Film and the Pleasures of Racism, 1900–1945
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2026
Summary
Chapter 2 outlines what ultimately made it to the screen when presenting racialised people, places and themes to British audiences from 1900 to the end of World War II. It concentrates on the thinking behind the production of the popular empire feature films, documentaries about empire and home movies of blacked-up Britons in the early twentieth century by white Britons such as John Grierson at the Empire Marketing Board and GPO Film Units, and William Sellers, director of the Colonial Film Unit during World War II. The chapter further outlines the ‘counter-storytelling’ that audiences of colour offered when encountering this material in film screenings in both Europe and the colonies and their varied responses to the racism on screen, including laughter.
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- Race on ScreenAudience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain, pp. 63 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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