“Invention in the Name of Community”: Workshops, the Avant-Garde and The Black Audio Film Collective

The Black Audio Film Collective was formed in the neighbourhood of Hackney, London, England in 1982. Along with other African and Caribbean diasporic filmmaking workshops such as Ceddo and Sankofa, The Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC) were representatives of a growing, grant-funded cultural film sector in London. Throughout their 16-year history, they pursued their principle aims by working within a specific infrastructure that incorporated workshop practice as a means of disseminating an Afrodiasporic formal language and creating a critical discourse that redefined the notions of race and representation within the cinematic avant-garde. This paper will explore The Black Audio Film Collective’s role within an institutional form of avant-garde practice, their emphasis on workshop education and the development of a specifically black diasporic film form, and the reception of their work within a black critical discourse