Friday 6 February 2009

BBC closes the Asian Production Unit ... with differences over diversity are departments targeting ethnic minorities no longer required ...

Or is this a mistake?

Sunny Hundal, editor of Asians in Media magazine shares his views:

From Sanjeev Bhaskar, Laila Rouass and Rajesh Mirchandani, to Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Anjum Anand - the BBC's Asian Programmes Unit has a long tradition of nurturing talent. But that hasn't prevented the corporation from deciding to close it.

Established in 1965 as the Immigration Programmes Unit, and responsible for producing programmes such as Network East and Partition, the APU has effectively been closed since its head, Gurdip Bhangoo, departed late last year - and there are no plans to replace him.

"As the cultural landscape of the UK has evolved, so has the need to reach those audiences through all of our output and to develop ethnic minority talent as part of our overall talent strategy," says a BBC statement. "Authentic portrayal of different cultural communities, the inclusion of modern voices and ethnic minority talent development are a crucial part of our commissioning process and therefore departments catering specifically for particular minority groups are no longer required."

Political motives

But not everyone agrees with the decision. Employees see political motives. A former APU employee thinks the corporation has decided that "difference is not to be celebrated". In his view: "They just want a homogenised British perspective."

"Closing the APU might have had the right intentions behind it," says another. "In the past, they have tried to integrate their ethnic minority programming quota within mainstream departments. But has it worked? Can you name the last Asian programme you saw on the BBC that was not made by the APU?"

Questions as to whether there is a need for terrestrial programming that specifically targets ethnic minorities - and whether that should be through specialised units or existing departments - are also growing elsewhere. In 2002, Channel 4 axed its department for multicultural programmes in favour of an editorial manager for diversity to persuade indies and commissioners to consider diversity during normal programming. "It was decided that making cutting-edge programmes by specialist departments might work better," says one producer. "To be honest, I don't think it's worked as well as they thought it would. It's very hard to change the culture around commissioning."

There has since been a change of tack again - with C4 creating a multicultural commissioning editor post, headed by the religion editor Aaqil Ahmed and, last week, the announcement of the former MP Oona King as head of diversity. The broadcaster says it has earmarked primetime slots supported by ring-fenced budgets to produce programming that will look to develop "multicultural ideas and talent" and reflect "all kinds of social diversity".

When the BBC first created what was the Immigration Programmes Unit in the 1960s, it produced BBC1 programmes such as Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye (Make Yourself At Home) which featured tutorials on British life, including voting and using gas boilers. That was soon followed by Nayi Zindagi Naya Jeevan (roughly translated as New Life New World) - which ran for 15 years and created household names - and series such as East, Bollywood or Bust, Cafe 21, Network East and Desi DNA.

But when Bhangoo was poached by Sony TV Asia in September last year, the corporation dithered on replacing him.

To compound internal problems, six weeks ago the BBC's head of diversity, Andrea Callender, left abruptly.

So should specialised departments be a thing of the past? "If you want to know about black or Asian culture, then The Culture Show should be the place," says C4's Ahmed. "If the programming across the board is as integrated as it needs to be, then you don't need targeted programming."

Ahmed says that what audiences want is to see themselves on screen. "The audiences don't necessarily want targeted programming," he says, "and the research bears that out." (Although, as he also points out, by scheduling targeted programming so late - Desi DNA was broadcast at 11.20pm on BBC2 - audience figures were never going to be brilliant.)
But broadcasters have not, many believe, been reflecting that cultural diversity. "The BBC needs real programming with high visibility in every division," says one former APU producer. "There doesn't seem to be any clear indications this will happen. If they fail to do this we'll look back at this as being the worst decision for Asian programming within the BBC."

Parallel lives

There also appears to be a demand for targeted programming, with 40-50 Asian satellite channels available, and up to 30,000 households with subscriptions to those not free-to-air. But that should not let terrestrial broadcasters off the hook. With no dedicated terrestrial broadcasting, critics point to the problem of developing actors and programme-makers from ethnic minorities, and the perpetuation of a "parallel lives" scenario where a generation of minorities grow up with little attachment to mainstream culture.

In addition, the closure of the APU highlights a greater issue. "The problem within the industry isn't necessarily about race - to me it's more about class," says Ahmed. "There are certain racial groups doing well, but to me they are often too similar in class and social culture to white, middle-class people to make a difference. I don't think there are enough executives in the media who realise that the industry is not being as representative."

Last year, after the producer Richard Klein told an internal audience that the BBC was "ignoring, at its peril, a great swathe of white, working-class audience", he went on to make BBC2's White Season. But many saw the series as tokenistic: working-class whites were largely seen through the prism of social breakdown, racism and immigration, and commissioners then returned to their usual fare.

British Asians could now become as underrepresented as other groups. Perhaps that's some semblance of equality.

• This article was taken from the Guardian Newspaper January 12th, 2009

First black entrepreneur OLAUDAH EQUIANO is to be honoured with a PLAQUE

Olaudah EQUIANO PLAQUE at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, SW1

A memorial Plaque will be dedicated & unveiled in honour of Olaudah Equiano at a special Service on Monday 9 February 2009 from 6.30pm to 8pm at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey.

Equiano was baptised in the church on 9 February 1759 (250 years to the day). Equiano was a former slave, seaman, war veteran, explorer, writer, businessman and an abolitionist.

The programme will include short speeches, readings, poetry, music, etc.

Please let me know if you'd like to attend and I will do my best to get places on the guest list ... but hurry!?

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Panel: Legacy & Learning part 1: State of Play

Chair: Nikki Christie, UK Partnerships Development Manager, UK Film CouncilIan Wall, Director Film EducationGaylene Gould, Film Club.

Gaylene: Film-club – films in schools, inc archival, non mainstream, world/subtitled – target 7000 schools in 3 years.

Ian: Film Education – funded by film industry, inc Nat films schools film week. Content cinema based (prints). Working with the Cultural Olympiad – attempting to screen a film from every olympic country.

G: noted the tribal nature of under 18s, therefore the need to acknowledge the shared group attraction of activities.

Also spoke about how much more young people can take on more challenging work than may be realised.

Check: London Children's Film Festival, Cinemagic, Showcomotion, Leeds Young People's Film Festival - suggested sources for film for children. 

Also BFI - check their catalogue for children's films available.

'Film Club is focused on watching movies (first and foremost)'. Interested in making links with festival to collaborate on work in schools and programming.

'We can take talent into schools, artists, directors etc' 

Often work in partnership with Film Education - but Film Club is not curriculum based (Film Education is).

Access to 5000 under 15 films to recommend.

N: 'Look for what schools in your area already have film clubs - and work with that existing audience/capacity'.

G: 'Film Club is free for schools'

I: Film Education looks to engage teachers into the idea of film culture & education.

Film Education's 'National Schools Film Week' - goes from Walt Disney to world cinema like 'the Lives of Others'. Reaches 100,000 children around the UK.

I: talked about winning the trust of the teachers and nurturing that relationship over time to develop more challenging programming, without scaring them off.

'Additionality at screenings is important for engaging schools - i.e. having speakers, panels, other elements on top of the screening'

Resources & funding for young people making films: 

First Light Movies,

Media Box 

Training resources: 

Moving Image Training Alliance

Film Education has funding available for pilot project looking a youth/schools based projects. Match funding needs to come from outside UK FIlm Council/Media Box etc - eg Local Authority, Businesses.

I; 'We want to teach about film, but also through film'

Spoke about the teaching packs available on the Film Education website, such as the one for Slumdog Millionaire - view here.