Brown Girl Films was formed in the summer I took the knee for George Floyd. I aim to create stories that involve black and brown people at the centre of the story. Of course I want to direct stories that involve all sorts of people. But my first priority during my early years as a film maker, is black women. There is still a need to challenge stereotypes and offer all generations of black actresses a chance to excel in imaginative lead roles.

This is a photo of myself in between my parents, Margaret and Charles Tyson. I am eighteen. It was taken by the Liverpool Echo on the eve of my first professional performance. The title Brown Girl Films has a double significance. The first is of untiy between different races. The second is a reminder to be ambitious in my efforts to put black and brown stories on the screen. There are so many of them!

The summer of 2020 and the world was alive with the sound of protest. George Floyd,s murder by a policeman was filmed and Black Lives Matter became a household name. I took the knee on my doorstep and attended a protest during lockdown.  I stood in London,s Parliament square when the news came that people in Bristol, England had torn down a slave trader’s statue and unceremoniously dumped it in the river. The atmosphere during the protest was celebratory, unifying, hopeful. The impossible was happening!! The roots of racism, slavery, were being faced and challenged for all to see.

Days later I woke to a Facebook message. A kind person, who was an acquaintance wanted to fund my work. He wanted to introduce me to a close director friend of his, Marcus Harben. The giver’s wish was for Marcus and I to work together. Knowing that artists around the world were struggling during the lockdown of  our industry, this was a deeply kind gesture.

A gesture that was to inspire me, with Marcus’s help to begin a project I,d had in mind for over a decade.

Ever since I started my career as an actress in 1983, Id wanted to bring to people’s attention, black people from Britain’s history. The 1980,s were a time when British blacks were starting to talk about our constant turning to America for hero’s and heroines. Where were our own?! Looking to America for validation was being challenged. Yes, I read Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange. They were inspiring. But I wanted to learn about black British voices. Surely they were out there too.

I also wanted to challenge the acting roles that were regularly being offered to black actors. I was a child of a black barrister father, where were those acting parts. I knew my family in Trinidad and indeed in England, weren’t criminals and wanted to see this reflected in art/media. I read about various black Britain’s from history. I read Ben Bousquet and Colin Douglas,s  book West Indian Women at War. It was here that I learned about Lilian Bader the first black woman in the Royal Air Force. Lilian is the subject of my first short film. I am indebted to the kind giver, who wishes to remain anonymous. His gift motivated me to get on with it. I’m also indebted to the late Marcus Harben who had faith in me from our first meeting.

Stills Photography courtesy of Chris Dodds.