This absorbing documentary from director John Akomfrah (The Nine Muses, Handsworth Songs) presents an intimate and engaging portrait of Stuart Hall, the Jamaican-born public intellectual and co-founder of the New Left Review, whose work in the field of cultural theory has profoundly influenced the academic landscape.
Using extensive footage of Hall's appearances on radio and television, the film explores its themes of memory, race and identity through the juxtaposition of events from Hall's life, and a discourse on the wider social and political events of the second half of the twentieth century, all set against a soundtrack by Hall's favourite musician, Miles Davis.
“A stirring documentary tribute to the cultural theorist Stuart Hall … we see the past few decades through very special eyes” Time Out
“Akomfrah finds a new and quietly moving significance in Hall's own life story” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Extras
The Stuart Hall Project Q&A (2013, 12 mins): John Akomfrah and Baroness Lola Young in conversation at BFI Southbank
John Akomfrah and Stuart Hall Q&A with Parminder Vir (2013, 49 mins): audio recording from the ICA screening of The Stuart Hall Project
Black and White in Colour Rushes (BFI, 1992, 20 mins): an interview with John Akomfrah recorded for Isaac Julien's Black and White in Colour: Television, Memory, Race which was broadcast during the BBC's 'Black and White in Colour' season
Original trailer
Optional 5.1. surround sound
Fully illustrated booklet with essay by the late Mark Fisher, and full credits
