FilmInk
Could not be more pertinent, even if its treatment is somewhat workmanlike and dry.
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White Riot
Documentary chonicling the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement in 1970s UK. RAR was formed during a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation's youth, RAR's multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance.
Founder Red Saunders explains: "We peeled away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika". The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978's huge concert in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse, Tom Robinson and The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR's message to the masses.
Less2019Rating: E80 minsUK
DocumentaryMusic
White Riot | Awards
Winner of Best Feature (Special Mention of the Generation 14plus International Jury) at Berlin Film Festival 2020, and Best Documentary at London Film Festival 2019.
White Riot | Reviews
Little White Lies
It's a cliché to describe a film as "essential viewing", but this really is.
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The Guardian
An excellent brief documentary about a heroic grassroots political movement whose importance reveals itself more clearly in retrospect with every year that passes.
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The New York Times
Especially compelling in its depiction of political organization in the analog age.
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Time Out
It dispenses with expositional voiceover and clocks in at a lean 80 mins. But all of that pales beside its central message.
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Stuff
Arriving with near perfect timing, White Riot is a powerful, persuasive look at a group of people who, rather than being superheroes, were simply “ordinary, anti-racist citizens”.
Full reviewWhite Riot | Release Details
White Riot is available to stream in New Zealand now on Google Play and Apple TV and Academy On Demand and AroVision.