Pressure

Credits

Starring Herbert Norville, Oscar James, Frank Singuineau, Lucita Lijertwood, Sheila Scott-Wilkinson, Norman Beaton
Director Horace Ové
Writers Horace Ové, Samuel Selvon
Producer Robert Buckler

Launched at the 1975 London Film Festival, Pressure was the UK’s first black feature film. Directed by the late Sir Horace Ove, co-written with Samuel Selvon, it was also Robert Buckler’s first production.

Shot on the streets of London’s Ladbroke Grove and Portobello Road, Pressure has become a unique document of 1970s Britain. Now in the National Archive, it was digitally remastered in 2023, with a grant from the BFI and The Film Foundation. The new digital print was unveiled on 11th October 2023 with simultaneous screenings at the London and New York Film Festivals. These were followed by a UK nationwide release on 3rd November.

When school-leaver Tony, a black Englishman, sets out to find a job and take his place amongst his white peer group, he carries the burden of all his family’s thwarted dreams. Arriving from the West Indies with high hopes, his parents have ended up in menial jobs while brother Colin has turned to Black Power. As disillusionment sets in, Tony falls in with a gang of petty criminals and comes into conflict with the police. Colin’s arrest and a police raid on his parents’ flat (plus his infatuation with American activist Sister Louise) finally draw Tony into Black Power politics. Here, he discovers in himself a willingness to stand up and argue, not necessarily for American Black Power, but something more uniquely British.