26 years ago sat on the green outside
@ealingstudios I didn’t think this time would come! I was an art trainee via the precursor to
@uk_screenskills , FT2. Working on a major period TV show I was ready to jack it in. A British- Pakistani Muslim northerner - I was an oddity on the production, as I recall the only other non white face was another FT2 trainee.
Initially I was treated as a novelty, that behaviour was odd but bearable. I became more like a circus freak, a monkey in cage, prodded and poked - strange comments like ‘Oh your parents can speak English?’ (yeah that was a minor…)
I came to realise very quickly that speaking to me was the most interaction that this Art Dept had ever had with a person of colour. I had wondered if maybe it was just a class thing - till I saw another trainee come in, also from the great north, with an accent much stronger than mine, but rather than being charged with collecting lunches and the designer’s dry cleaning he was given a chair alongside the designer. There was something they saw in his face that merited that attention, the potential for greatness, the survival of the system. All that knowledge deserved an inheritor with much less melanin.
After the novelty came disdain, targeting, slurs….the support of my pals, family, my incredible training supervisor Carol Jacobs, and the allieship of a ‘west london nice and easy’ prop team helped me to stick it out till the next project.
That final life changing placement came on the incredible film ’24 Hour Party People’ - my first professional gig, life long friendships, a different way to treat juniors and my first work on a commercial, driving white card models through the night from Liverpool to Soho, back again for calltime - it was a film shoot on speed.
The years since have been a ride - ‘dem no like me’ a bard once said - but I refuse to be thrown off - make it as fast and twisty as you like.
I’m no longer shocked by the micro aggressions and discriminations we face in these ‘liberal arts’. I am no longer afraid to call out the racialised recruitment practices and nepotistic favours that restrict entrance to the club.
(….More in comments!)
