Black Lives Matter protesters in Backlash: The Murder of George Floyd. [BBC/Rogan Productions/Unsplash/Obi Pixel]
BACKLASH: THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD
Directed by Kwabena Oppong
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆
IT was five years ago that a man called George Floyd was stopped by a gang of armed thugs waving police badges. And the actions of those four police officers one night in Minneapolis had global reverberations: the impact of their murderous behaviour continues today.
This careful documentary tells the tragic story of how George Floyd was stopped on suspicion of a minor crime and lost his life – and prompted a global reckoning.
As you will recall, Floyd was stopped on suspicion of trying to use a counterfeit $20 to buy some cigarettes. There was some heavy handed policing as four officers decided to use maximum force to subdue their subject. One officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on George’s neck and was later found guilty of his murder.
Backlash: The Murder of George Floyd. [BBC/Rogan Productions/Unsplash/Obi Pixel]
The impact of George’s murder has been pronounced on his family. Director Kwabena Oppong has diligently interviewed George’s grief-stricken uncle, community leaders in Minneapolis, the chief of police who decided to testify against his colleagues; then we are taken to the UK, and it is here the film widens its reach.
We follow the protests that spontaneously erupted in London and Bristol: the story of the toppling of a statue of Colston, the slave trader, is recounted with those who were involved.
We also meet Patrick Hutchinson, the black man who scooped up and rescued a concussed far-right protester who had come to London to cause violence and spout racist nonsense.
We hear the moving story of a young woman from the Forest of Dean who has faced a lifetime of abuse – her father is black – and how she went on to organise a Black Lives Matter protest.
And the film sheds light on our own failings as a society – the killing of footballer Dalian Atkinson, the death of Julian Cole, and other stories that tell of the institutionally racist bodies that hold power.
The narrative also considers the response from the far right, and how racists used the BLM movement to offer what are just incredibly stupid takes on politics, policing and ethnicity.
As the USA finds itself, yet again, with a man in the White House who has made soft, cooing noises towards neo-nazis, this film is timely, and sad: what a damning indictment of our times that we cannot see how utterly stupid racism is, and how radical change in how we organise the civic glue that binds societies together is still required.
