Rachel Garfield – Prescient intersectionality: Women, moving image and identity politics in 1980s Britain

Abstract

This text will look at some women artist filmmakers working in London through the formation and legacies of the multiculturalism in the UK. These artist filmmakers were pioneers in the development of intersectional moving image artwork but have been somewhat overlooked compared to future generations of artists dealing with these issues in moving image. The chapter contextualises their work in relation to the period and draw out some of the wider forces that formed their work from second wave Feminism, Punk, Rock against Racism to the race riots and Black Arts in the 1980s that pioneered work exploring Black identity. Specifically this chapter looks at Sankofa films, Alia Syed, Vivienne Dick, Ruth Novaczek and reflects on the wider impact of the cultural studies debates in the 1980s on Diasporic communities in the UK.