Menelik Shabazz was a Barbados-born British film director, producer, educator, and writer, acknowledged as a pioneer in the development of independent Black British cinema, having been at the forefront of contemporary British filmmaking for more than 30 years.
11 Facts About Menelik Shabazz
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Menelik Shabazz was co-founder in the 1980s of Kuumba film production company and Ceddo Film and Video Workshop, as well as being "founding father of the BFM media project" as the publisher of Black Filmmaker Magazine and creator of BFM International Film Festival.
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Menelik Shabazz's family immigrated to the United Kingdom when he was five years old.
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Menelik Shabazz had watched mobile cinema in his village as a child, and at the age of 18 began to think about making films after being introduced to Sony's first portable video technology while studying at North London College.
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In 1976 Menelik Shabazz directed Step Forward Youth, a 30-minute documentary about London-born black youths, after which he worked in commercial television, directing Breaking Point, which was shown on prime-time TV and contributed to the repeal of the Sus law that was being used to criminalize Black youth.
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In 1982, Menelik Shabazz co-founded Kuumba Productions with Imruh Bakari and Henry Martin to provide an outlet for independent film projects, and produced for Channel 4 the drama Big George is Dead, directed by Henry Martin, and the documentary I am Not Two Islands.
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In 1984, with founding members including Bakari, Lazell Daley and Milton Bryan, Menelik Shabazz formed Ceddo Film and Video Workshop, a franchised collective that produced films for Channel 4, through which he wrote and directed the docu-drama Time and Judgement, telling the history of the struggles of the Black community across the world by using newsreel footage.
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Menelik Shabazz's film Looking for Love, an insightful look into the lives and loves of singletons in the digital era, made its debut at the BFI in May 2015 to a sold-out audience, and in August went on to national release in key UK cinemas, including: Vue Cinemas in Shepherds Bush, Birmingham and Westfield Stratford; Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn; Hackney Picturehouse; Ritzy Cinema; Dalston Rio ; Streatham Odeon, and Midlands Arts Centre.
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Menelik Shabazz lectured and conducted workshops internationally, including in the Caribbean and throughout the UK and US at such venues and educational institutions as the National Film and Television School, University of Southampton, University of Leeds, University of North East London, University of Westminster, London International Film School, British Film Institute, New York University and Howard University.
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In 1998, Menelik Shabazz founded Black Filmmaker Magazine, the first black film publication aimed at the global black filmmaking industry, and over the next decade the publication was distributed in Europe and the US.
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Menelik Shabazz was 67, and suffered from complications of diabetes prior to his death.