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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Letters

Amma Asante is doing British film proud

Director Amma Asante and cinematographer Ben Smithard on the set of Belle in 2013
Director Amma Asante and cinematographer Ben Smithard on the set of Belle in 2013. Photograph: Everett/Rex Shutterstock

We don’t need “a Jeff Nichols of our own” to tell the stories of race and racism in Britain on film (Review: Heartfelt but reticent portrait of defiance against racism, 17 May). We have Amma Asante, director of Belle and A United Kingdom, both of which, like Jeff Nichols’ film Loving, are historical dramas centred on high-profile mixed-race relationships and their dramatic consequences. In the month when three reports, from Calling the Shots, Directors UK, and European Women’s Audiovisual network, have drawn attention to the stark gender and racial inequality in British film-making, Peter Bradshaw misses a chance to draw attention to a trailblazing director already brilliantly at work. As Melissa Silverstein says, #SeeHerNow.
Dr Sophie Mayer
London

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