Imruh Bakari

Bakari worked in film and theatre projects in Bradford at the Art College and then attended the UK National Film and Television School. His graduation film was Riots and Rumours of Riots in 1981.{{cite web|url=http://bufvc.ac.uk/dvdfind/index.php/title/18391|title=Riots and Rumours of Riots|publisher=The British Universities Film and Video Council|date=1981}} This documented the history of immigration from the Caribbean to the UK from the Second World War until the 1958 Notting Hill riots. The film looked at that period against the background of the 1981 riots in the UK.{{cite journal | title=Film list | author=Unknown | journal=Undercut|date= Spring 1988|issue= 17}}{{cite web|url=https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-riots-and-rumours-of-riots-1981-online|title= Riots and Rumours of Riots|website=BFI Player}}

He worked with Menelik Shabazz on Step Forward Youth (1974), which documented the lives of black youth in Britain, and in 1982 on Burning an Illusion and the short Blood Ah Go Run.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4098157/ "Imruh Caesar"] at IMDb. Bakari formed Kuumba Productions with Menelik Shabazz and Henry Martin, and was a founder member of Ceddo Film and Video Workshop,{{cite web|url = http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/569785/|title = Ceddo| date = |access-date =16 February 2015 |website = |publisher=BFI Screenonline |last = Ogidi|first =Ann }} an outlet for new young, primarily black, talent. Bakari produced I Am Not Two Islands (1983) for Channel 4.

He then made Street Warriors in 1985, and The Mark of the Hand in 1986 for the Arts Council of Great Britain on the work of Caribbean artist Aubrey Williams.[http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/products/the-mark-of-the-hand-aubrey-williams-355/ "The Mark of the Hand: Aubrey Williams"], Concord Media. The latter "was a pioneering work and to this day, sympathetic and sensitive documentary film studies of Black British artists, such as Mark of the Hand, remain a rarity. One hugely important aspect of the film is the exploration of Williams’ respect and fondness for the indigenous peoples of the Guyana interior. In this regard, the film positively complicates and challenges assumed notions of Caribbean identity."

In 1992, Bakari directed Blue Notes and Exiled Voices, about the experiences of exiled South African musicians during the apartheid era, featuring Hugh Masekela, the Brotherhood of Breath, Louis Moholo and Pinise Saul.{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7b9a31e6|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618015010/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7b9a31e6|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 18, 2018|title=Blue Notes and Exiled Voices (1992)|publisher=BFI}}

Between 1999 and 2004 Bakari was Festival Director for the Zanzibar International Film Festival.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1441895.stm|title=Zanzibar festival showcases arts|publisher=BBC News — Africa|access-date=16 February 2015}}{{cite web|url = http://www.ziff.or.tz/|title = Zanzibar International Film Festival|date = |access-date =16 February 2015 |website = |publisher =Ziff.or.tz |last = |first = }} In Tanzania, together with Beatrix Mugishagwe and lecturer Augustine Hatar, he cofounded the Tanzania Screenwriter's Forum in 2001, running a monthly scriptwriting workshop at the University of Dar es Salaam.{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Jane|author-link=Jane Bryce|editor1-last=Saul|editor1-first=Mahir|editor2-last=Austen|editor2-first=Ralph A.|title=Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cH0DaVXW0JMC&pg=PA170|year=2010|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-8214-1931-1|pages=165–72|chapter=Outside the Machine? Donor Values and the Case of Film in Tanzania}} Bakari also participated in the industry organisation, the Tanzania Independent Producers Association (TAIPA). Between 2005 and 2008, he produced in Tanzania the short film series African Tales. He was the producer of Mwalimu – The Legacy of Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Mnet, Great Africans Series, 2009).{{cite web|url = https://film.list.co.uk/listing/190134-mwalimu-the-legacy-of-julius-kambarage-nyerere/|title = Mwalimu – The Legacy of Julius Kambarage Nyerere|date = |access-date =16 February 2015 |website = |publisher =Film.list.co.uk |last = |first = }}

In 2022, Bakari participated in the Sight & Sound film polls of that year. It is held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, by asking contemporary directors to select ten films of their choice.[https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time/all-voters/imruh-bakari ]

Bakari's selections were:

{{div col | colwidth=25em}}

• Napoléon (1927)
• Bicycle Thieves (1948)
• Pather Panchali (1955)
• Black Girl (1966)
• The Battle of Algiers (1966)
• The Godfather (1972)
• Mirror (1972)
• West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty (1979)
• La Rue Cases-Nègres (1983)
• Hyènes (1992)

{{div col end}}

He has acted and directed in the theatre. During the 1970s, he worked at the Keskidee Arts Centre, where his performances included the lead role in the first production of Alem Mezgebe's Pulse in 1977, directed by Rufus Collins. In 1985, Bakari worked on Compound Images, Coming Up for Air, and The Balmyard in 1986 with Don Kinch's Staunch Poets and Players.{{cite journal |title=Biographical notes| journal=Undercut | date=Spring 1988| issue=17}}

Bakari writes on African and Caribbean cinema and the creative industries. His articles have appeared in publications including the 1993 and 1994 Ecrans d'Afrique,{{cite journal | title=Focus on African Cinema | last=Bakari|first= Imruh | journal=Ecrans d'Afrique|number=9/10|date= 1984}} Screen,{{cite journal | title=Colonialism and modern lives in African Cinema | last=Bakari|first= Imruh | journal=Screen|volume=48|number=4|date= Winter 2007| pages=501–505| doi=10.1093/screen/hjm051}} Black Filmmaker and Black Film Bulletin.{{cite journal | title=African Voices, African Visions | last=Bakari|first= Imruh | journal=The Black Film Bulletin|volume=5|number=2/3, Summer/Autumn 1997}} He is the joint editor, with Mbye Cham, of African Experiences of Cinema.{{cite book|last1=Bakari|first1= Ishaq Imruh|author2=Mbye B. Cham|title=African Experiences of Cinema|date=1995|publisher=BFI Publishing|location=London|isbn=0-85170-511-1|edition=1}} In 1996, he wrote "Memory and Identity in Caribbean Cinema" for New Formations.{{cite journal|url=https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-1996-issue-30/l|title=Memory and Identity in Caribbean Cinema|first=Imruh|last=Bakari|journal=New Formations |issue=30: Cultural Memory|issn=0950-2378|publisher= Lawrence and Wishart|access-date=16 February 2015}}

He has also published the collections of poetry Sounds & Echoes (Karnak House, 1981),{{cite book|last1=Bakari|first1=Ishaq Imruh|title=Sounds & Echoes|date=1980|publisher=Karnak House|location=London|isbn=978-0907015017}} Secret Lives (Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, 1986),{{cite book|last1=Caesar|first1=Imruh Bakari; with an introduction by Faustin Charles|title=Secret Lives|date=1986|publisher=Bogle-L'Ouverture|location=London|isbn=0904521362}} and Without Passport or Apology (Smokestack Books, 2017).Bakari, Ishaq Imruh, [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Without-Passport-Apology-Ishaq-Bakari/dp/0995563543/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489947405&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=imruh+bakari+caesar Without Passport or Apology] at Amazon. He has performed his work on London's Southbank Centre.{{cite web|url=http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/poetry-parnassus/poets/bakari-ishaq-imruh|title=Bakari, Ishaq Imruh|publisher=Southbankcentre.co.uk|access-date=16 February 2015}}

• Sounds & Echoes – poetry (Karnak House, 1981)
• Secret Lives – poetry (Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, 1986)
• Without Passport or Apology – poetry (Smokestack Books, 2017)

• Riots and Rumours of Riots (1981)
• Street Warriors (1985)
• The Mark of the Hand (1986)
• Blue Notes and Exiled Voices (1992), director
• Mwalimu – The Legacy of Julius Kambarage Nyerere (2009), producer

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• Malik, Sarita (1998), [http://oro.open.ac.uk/57875/2/DX204950_2.pdf "1. Interview with Imruh Bakari Conducted 10.12.96"], in Representing black Britain : black images on British television from 1936 to the present day, pp. 7–32. PhD thesis, The Open University.

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Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the National Film and Television School

Category:Academics of the University of Winchester

Category:Alumni of the University of Winchester

Category:Black British filmmakers

Category:Black British writers

Category:Saint Kitts and Nevis emigrants to the United Kingdom