VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Shah’s film crackles with a raucous energy. Weaving together music, politics, animation and history, White Riot carries a punk infused swagger that is infectious…Shah’s documentary will not only please those unfamiliar with the punk scene, but also those looking for stories of average people challenging the status quo.” —Courtney Small, POV Magazine
Britain, late-1970s. The country is deeply divided over immigration. The National Front, a far-right and fascist political party, is gaining strength. And countering this was Rock Against Racism (RAR), a movement that swept across the U.K. and Europe and culminated in a 100,000+ person march and a legendary concert event—Woodstock meets the March on Washington, punk-style. Capturing this incredible moment in time when music changed the world is the award-winning documentary White Riot from director Rubika Shah.
Expanding on her documentary short White Riot: London, Shah’s energizing film charts the rise of Rock Against Racism (RAR), formed in 1976, prompted by “music’s biggest colonialist” Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. The brisk, informative White Riot blends fresh, engaging interviews with RAR staff and musicians with archival footage to recreate 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. The campaign grew from “Temporary Hoarding,” the movement’s fanzine to 1978’s huge antifascist concert in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Tom Robinson, Steel Pulse and, of course, The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR’s message to the masses. White Riot chronicles this “extraordinary fusion of culture and politics that changed society for the better.” (Jackson Caines, Glass Magazine).
