On Sunday night, The Guardian documentary The Black Cop won the Bafta for best short film.
Director Cherish Oteka labelled it a “huge collective win for the marginalised … all the outsiders and the people told, ‘You’re not good enough’.”
This intimate portrait of Gamal ‘G’ Turawa, an ex-Metropolitan police officer, explores his memories of racially profiling and harassing black people and homophobia in his early career. Now an openly gay man, Turawa’s story is a multi-layered one and sits in the centre of three pivotal moments in recent British history, from the black communities’ resistance of oppressive policing, to the push for LGBTQIA equality and the aftermath of the west African ‘farming’ phenomenon, where white families took care of black children outside the remit of local authorities.
