Handsworth Songs

The Aryans

April 2014 •German

THE ARYANS is Mo Asumang's personal journey into the madness of racism during which she meets German neo-Nazis, the US leading racist, the notorious Tom Metzger and Ku Klux Klan members in the alarming twilight of the Midwest. In The ARYANS Mo questions the completely wrong interpretation of "Aryanism" - a phenomenon of the tall, blond and blue-eyed master race.

Une identité dans la diversité

September 2016 •French

The Dirty War on the NHS

November 2019 •English

John Pilger unearths the hidden agenda behind the NHS crisis.

Time Keeps Marching On

August 2025 •English

An undocumented immigrant explores his and his family's immigration trauma while grasping hope through a voicemail.

My Life Inside

January 2007 •Spanish

Rosa is a Mexican woman who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. Some years later, she was jailed under suspicion of murder and then taken to trial. This film demonstrates how the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and the helplessness of being imprisoned in a foreign country make Rosa’s story an example of the hard life of Mexican migrants in the United States.

Mr. Trump, Pardon the Interruption

September 2019 •Spanish

An analysis of the impact on the United States Latino community of immigration policies promoted by President Donald Trump.

From Mexico to Vietnam: A Chicano Story

November 2022 •English

"From Mexico to Vietnam: A Chicano Story" is an inspiring documentary that chronicles the life of Jesus S. Duran, a Mexican immigrant who became a decorated U.S. Army soldier during the Vietnam War. Born in Juarez, Mexico, Duran moved to the United States as a child and enlisted in the Army in 1968. On April 10, 1969, while serving as an M-60 machine gunner with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), he displayed extraordinary bravery by rescuing several wounded comrades during an intense enemy ambush in Tay Ninh, Vietnam. His valorous actions led to a posthumous Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama. Directed by Andrés Gallegos, the film delves into Duran's personal journey, his family's migration from Mexico, and the broader impact of the Vietnam War on the Chicano and Latino communities.

Viikinki

September 2022 •Finnish

Documentary film about Tony Halme, masculinity and populism. The film follows how Tony Halme created a mythical, highly masculine freestyle wrestling character, The Viking, who gained fame both in the ring and in the public eye and eventually became captivated by it. With his brash speeches, Halme fired the starting shot for the rise of the Finns Party. The voice of a forgotten section of the population, a protest against the ruling elite, were the building blocks of Halme's popularity. Halme's great popularity has served as a good example of a populist figure, admired within the deep ranks of the nation, who comes from outside the political elite and changes the direction of politics. Also, despite - or perhaps because of - his openly racist statements, he was part of changing the political climate in Finland to a more acrimonious one.

The Other Side of the Wall

March 2017 •Spanish

Honduran immigrants living in Mexico, teenage siblings Rocío and Ale must take over care of their two younger siblings after their mother is sentenced to prison on dubious grounds. Tensions grow between the pair as the decision must be made on whether to stay together in Mexico or split the family up to cross into the US to work.

The Case of the Wrong Man

May 2017 •Portuguese

The documentary tells the story of Júlio César, a young Afro-Brazilian who was executed by the Police in the 1980s in Porto Alegre. The crime became notorious when the press published photos of Julius being put alive in the police car and arriving 37 minutes later shot and dead at the hospital.

The Freedom of the Sea

January 2025 •English

The Freedom of the Sea is a short documentary highlighting the freedom of living in the UK - in contrast to a more restrictive life in Iran - through the joy of daily sea swimming in Brighton.

Who Gets To Be an Influencer?

June 2021 •English

Chronicles the rise of Collab Crib, one of the first mainstream Black creator mansion, exclusively documenting their whirlwind drive to achieve social media stardom in 90 days.

Me Alone in the Classroom

March 2017 •Dutch

Doing really well on your school assessment tests, but still having the school recommend that you go to preparatory vocational school. Going to a club with friends and having the bouncer keep you out. Having to endure jokes from classmates. These are examples of the sort of casual racism that the children of director Karin Junger and their friends have to face. In Ik alleen in de klas, director Karin Junger, white mother of three darker-skinned children, stands with her family to confront the racism they experience in their daily lives. Twelve adolescents meet at a mansion in France. The group consists of Junger’s children and their friends. All of them come from ethnic minority backgrounds and share a feeling of being excluded from Dutch society. Re-enactment is used to explore painful situations again. In this simple but effective documentary, we can see the impact of subtle and less subtle forms of racism on the lives of young Dutch people.

Aos de ontem, aos de sempre

December 2018 •Portuguese

Short film about racism.

The Color of Fear 2: Walking Each Other Home

January 1997 •English

In THE COLOR OF FEAR, eight American men participated in emotionally charged discussions of racism. In this sequel, we hear and see more from those discussions, in which the men talk about about how racism has affected their lives in the United States. We also learn more about the relationships between them, and about their reactions during some of the most intense moments of that discussion.

They Won't Call It Murder

November 2021 •English

Police have been killing people in Columbus, Ohio, with near impunity for more than two decades, leaving behind a community bound together by grief – and a system that refuses to call these killings murder. In a searing indictment of the police and justice system at large, educator and curator Ingrid Raphael and journalist Melissa Gira Grant have collaborated in this short film, which spotlights the testimonies and resistance strategies of the loved ones of Henry Green, Tyre King, Donna Dalton and Julius Tate. These are the mothers, sisters, and grandmothers of those who were killed by Columbus police, women seeking justice for their family members, despite knowing that it is unlikely to be found within the system that caused their wrongful deaths.

RapLine

September 1993 •French

Between 1990 and 1993, at a time when rap was not yet on the radio in France, Olivier Cachin hosted a musical TV show on M6 called "RapLine". The show exclusively devoted to rap and other alternative music. This cult show presented all the facets of these emerging movements through interviews, lives and clips made especially for the show, around fifty clips were produced by RapLine. Another sequence of the show consisted of broadcasting new US rap clips subtitled in French.

Rap, O Canto da Ceilândia

November 2005 •Portuguese

A documentary about rap artists from Ceilândia, a satellite-city of Brazil capital, Brasilia. The film portrait the struggle of the lives of the rapers and makes a parallel with the violent building of the city designed to settle the outcast from Brasilia after its completion.

Risky Roadz: 0121

June 2021 •English

After a ten year sabbatical, legendary Grime filmmaker; Roony 'Risky Roadz' Keefe, makes a return to the world of documentary to uncover the business infrastructure of the fast emerging music scene in Birmingham, and, how that is being taken to a global platform.

Grandmother Told Grandmother

October 2018 •English

The little-known story of Ukrainian children torn from their homes in the crush between the Nazi and Soviet fronts in World War II. Spending their childhood as refugees in Europe, these inspiring individuals later immigrated to the United States, creating new homes and communities through their grit, faith and deep belief in the importance of preserving culture.