Reflection on 'Breathing by Numbers', 'Hello Mr Officer', and 'Marks of Worship'

Hello Mr Officer brings together interviews and real, lived moments through animation and video. It tells the stories of Black men who’ve been arrested because of their skin colour by police in the UK (all of whom are white, without exception, at least in the footage used in this film). The police are depicted, appropriately, in clay and digital illustration, as piggies.

By Harley Stapleton-Brister

The programme was composed of three films, ‘Breathing by Numbers’, ‘Hello Mr Officer’ and ‘Marks of Worship’ at The Garden Cinema, an art deco mockup clothed in lush red and sea-green wallpaper, pinned with gold framed stars of old. The screening was organised by the wonderful Redeye, an organisation which programmes films whose focus is set apart from Western cinema to give airtime to Pan-African and global films, and to amplify the voices of Black and minority ethnic filmmakers in the UK and global West. When Redeye screens films, they always hold a post screening discussion, usually with the director(s) present, and when screening short films they try to discover themes which unite the films through dialogue between artist(s), moderator, and audience. I will try to unite the films under a theme also.

Breathing by Numbers plays over the voice of Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, a Black woman campaigner who lost her 9-year-old asthmatic daughter to air pollution and campaigned for air pollution to be listed on her daughter’s death certificate. The film intermits her voice speaking about the tragedy she faced and her subsequent campaign work with music and dance, beautifully and painfully rendered, reflecting a wider distress which extends beyond any one injustice that Black people face, as Black people are disproportionately affected by air pollution. Also shot are images of her estate (I think) drawing us into her world as it relates to wider struggles for justice. The film’s director, Julian Knox (Julianknxx), said after the screening (I’m paraphrasing); ‘We just want to live. We’re just trying to live together.’ This idea of life together becomes very important for the programme.

Hello Mr Officer brings together interviews and real, lived moments through animation and video. It tells the stories of Black men who’ve been arrested because of their skin colour by police in the UK (all of whom are white, without exception, at least in the footage used in this film). The police are depicted, appropriately, in clay and digital illustration, as piggies.

You remember the website Newgrounds.com? If Black struggles with the police were given voice in the early 2000s on Newgrounds via a few of the animation styles present on that platform, you might have something like Hello Mr Officer; but it’s eminently more important than the mostly violent banality passing through teenage brains on that site. The film combines various styles of animation, Claymation, rotoscope, digital illustration, with audio from the past and footage from the present. Not only do you get to see ugly piggies rendered in multiple ways, but greater than this is the sense of a community project, cobbled from the works of people addressing that which Black people face. The film was directed by Djofray Makumbu.

Marks of Worship depicts a young Black woman who is clearly set apart from those around her. She partakes in a dinner party with others, and when they smile she doesn’t, when she smiles they don’t. Some of the people are fanning themselves with napkins which eventually transform into wads of cash. The dinner evolves into further celebratory activities, including dancing and drinking. When they dance she does not, and vice versa. The end of the film involves a baptism by water in a bathtub. She clearly feels joy in the things they do not, and clearly needs some space in which to express her joy. Akinola Davies directs.

Here is a slightly different approach to the theme of life together, a different setting for exploring difference. The individual set apart from her community, rather than the community set apart by their oppression. Life together, other than being the title of a great book, was the term which stuck with me in my red velvet chair. But more interesting than my theme is the way Redeye’s moderator, Nigel, with help from the directors and audience, brought it into my mind. Redeye is a space which helps people to have ideas, and this, as far as I’m aware, is integral to their mission.

When we left the screening, we were given goodie bags with delicious snacks. Included as gifts at Redeye screenings are always an art card which could be framed, kept, used as a bookmark. I cannot emphasise enough how great it is what the people behind Redeye are doing.