Lovers Rock directed by BFI Fellow Steve Mc Queen, has been added to the lineup of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Lovers Rock is one of five films from Steve Mc Queen’s Small Axe anthology alongside the festival’s Opening film Mangrove. The film will screen on Sunday October 18th across two screenings at BFI Southbank as part of the LFF’s Love strand.
An ode to the romantic reggae genre called “Lovers Rock” and to the young people who found freedom and love in its sound, Lovers Rock tells a fictional story of young love and music at a house party in 1980. Amarah-Jae St Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite the BAFTAs 2020 Rising Star Award recipient Micheal Ward (Blue Story). Shaniqua Okwok (Boys), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education), Ellis George (Dr Who), Alexander James-Blake (Top Boy) and Kadeem Ramsay (Blue Story) also star, as well as Francis Lovehall and Daniel Francis-Swaby who make their screen debuts. Lovers Rock was co-written by Courttia Newland and Steve McQueen.
The film, alongside Mangrove, is one of five films from Small Axe; a drama anthology which comprises five original films created by Steve McQueen for BBC One. Set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the films each tell a different story involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will, despite rampant racism and discrimination. Mangrove will open the film festival on Wednesday 7th October and will play for free to audiences at BFI Southbank and in selected cinemas across the UK.
Lovers Rock Director, Steve Mc Queen said: “I’m so happy to be screening Lovers Rock at the London Film Festival, to show it here where it belongs is a privilege. I hope this film will bring back memories of parties past and look to the future of parties to come” BFI London Film Festival Director, Tricia Tuttle said: “Steve Mc Queen’s Lovers Rock as a late addition? Swoon…this is exactly what we all need on the last day of the BFI London Film Festival: pure cinematic and musical balm”
The 64th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express is taking place from Wednesday October 7th to Sunday October 18th, 2020