Pulling Blue Story from cinemas was racist and we stand by the filmmakers to tell black stories

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

We the undersigned are writing this letter to stand with the director Rapman, producer Joy Gharoro Akpojotor, the cast and crew of the urgent, necessary and groundbreaking film Blue Story.

We condemn the blatant racism by Vue and Showcase cinemas in banning this film and support the calls to boycott Vue.

As artists, filmmakers and movie lovers, we are appalled and disturbed by this act of censorship which seeks to make it harder to tell the stories of black people and to criminalise audiences who wish to experience these stories.

Over the course of Blue Story’s opening weekend, an incident occurred in Star City Birmingham. It led to Vue Cinema banning the film, citing safety concerns for their staff and customers. Showcase followed suit. Since then both have reversed their decisions.

Vue gave no clear indication that this incident at Star City was in relation to Blue Story, given that it occurred during the screening of a different film. Further, chief superintenden​t Steve Graham of West Midlands police has publicly stated the force did not ask for the film to be withdrawn. Vue mentioned a further 25 incidents but did not explain what these were and how they related to their decision to pull the film, aside from the fact that it attracted a young audience. But then so does Frozen 2.

The film Joker has been labelled a “masterpiece” and a statement of our troubled era. It has won the top prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival and is tipped to gain more awards. But its violent scenes have also caused concerns in light of the mass shooting at a late-night screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado. Joker was not pulled, despite being far more violent than Blue Story.

The need for a film like Blue Story can be seen in how audiences have reacted; the online buzz and the sold-out screenings show that many desire to see aspects of their own lives reflected in cinema. Blue Story is a film about change: there is no right or wrong audience for such films and everyone should have access to culture.

In isolation, it could be said that the banning of Blue Story is simply unfair. But it is one of the few films on general release which recounts black life in Britain. The film being pulled speaks of a wider problem of systemic racism. For example, Caribbean carnivals, particularly Notting Hill, have been criminalised, with raids on homes during the summer months being unfairly linked to the west London carnival.

Similarly, a number of academics and human rights groups have condemned the criminalisation of another form of black culture: drill music. With some musicians banned from performing it. The controversial “form 696” was also banned, as police were asking music venues to disclose the ethnicity of audiences in a manner many deemed discriminatory.

By censoring and removing Blue Story, Vue has helped to push the narrative that black films attract negative behaviour and therefore do not sell. Such narratives contribute to systemic racism, viewing people of colour as a homogenous collective that need to be disciplined.

We demand the right to tell black stories. We demand the right to see black stories told by black people.

Adam Elliott-Cooper, University of Greenwich, London

Malik Nashad Sharpe, choreographer, London

Rianna Jade Parker, London

Victoria Sin, London

Mica, London

Aurella Yussuf, London

Kayza Rose, London

Rebecca Bellantoni, London

Noam Gorbat, Berlin, Germany

Dominique White, London

A right to private education

It seems Labour is determined to make private schools impossible to operate by cancelling their charitable status and forcing parents to pay VAT on school fees. Has the effect of this been properly thought through? These establishments save the country billions per year and at the same time give a standard of education far superior to the state schools, but at a price. And who has to pay for the children? Their parents of course.

Will parents no longer have the right to have their children educated the way they wish? What about the human rights legislation? Sadly, yet another attempt by the Labour Party to reduce everything and everybody to the lowest common denominator. This is frightening and could lead to a communist regime. Are communist-related countries prosperous?

Peter Smith
Chippenham, Wiltshire

Summit of the apes

The photograph of those Nato leaders with two members of the royal family speaks volumes. Look at the way these inept, incompetent, educated-but-not-intelligent men are sitting. Almost every one of them has their legs wide open, groins on display like a chimpanzee troop displaying at a rival one. Then they stand up and their ties hang down into their groins, far lower than a tie should properly hang.

Almost every male Tory MP does this, as well when sitting in a photo with the current PM, especially if said PM is female. Says it all. As for the footage of the playground comments some were making about Trump: we rely on those oafs for our security? Jeez.

R Kimble
Leeds

True lies?

So, with a straight face, Nicola Sturgeon states on TV that she always tells the truth. What? Where do we start? How about her claim, on re-election in 2016, that Scotland’s education system was her number one priority, when it’s beyond obvious independence and the nationalist dogma drives her and the SNP above all else.

When claiming she always tells the truth, I’m sorry to say it, the first minister of Scotland, desperate for votes next week, is lying to us all.

Martin Redfern
Edinburgh

False hope for young voters

It is with great anguish I write to expose the real truth behind Jeremy Corbyn’s drive to secure young voters for the Labour Party. His tactics to scrap student fees, provide free wifi, make train travel free for young persons, and reduce the voting age to 16 – all these and more are deliberately aimed to lull young persons into a false sense of security, so they vote for Labour without realising the dangerous and rough waters the country will be heading into if Jeremy Corbyn were ever to be our prime minister.

Our country would end up where it was 40 years ago, with the chaos of industrial action becoming a norm and the loss of working days to striking rising to what it was all those years ago.

Surely no one wants this to happen, but with Jeremy Corbyn’s Marxist way of thinking he will take us there faster than we could ever comprehend.

But worst of all he’s using our young people, the hope of our country and our future, to achieve this. Never has something so blatantly underhand been done before in British politics. If he’s prepared to stoop this low to win an election, the mind wonders how low he’ll take our country. Jeremy Corbyn must never be allowed to lead our country.

Clive Marsh
Efail Isaf, Wales

Rehabilitation for terrorists is possible

I am disturbed by the plea the London Bridge attacker had written to join a deradicalisation course: “Now I am much more mature and want to live my life as a good Muslim and also a good citizen of Britain.”

The majority of Muslims (like myself) know that violence and extremism have nothing to do with the values of Islam. We know the terrorists who claim otherwise have been severely brainwashed. We have known this for a long time.

And yet the attacker’s plea suggests not that these terrorists are just brainwashed, but that they know their actions aren’t in line with being a “good Muslim”. They know that they are not following Islam’s teachings, but instead a sick ideology fuelled by hatred that is trying to fuel more hatred.

To reform and rehabilitate the people who have the potential is a tremendous effort, but possible. I think I will spend the rest of my life in awe of people like Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones: who are braver than us, and braver than them.

Yusra Dahri
Tilford, Surrey

A national disgrace

Boris Johnson continuing to try to take advantage of the London Bridge terror attack, despite the families of the victims begging him not to, is a national disgrace.

Johnson is a serial liar who will say and do anything to get into power so he can serve the Tory billionaire crony donors. This however is going too far. Now he claims that the likes of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – the nations that, with Britain, make up the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement – could stop working closely with the UK if Mr Corbyn became prime minister.

He trots out the usual, they will do so because “he sides with our enemies” cliche. Isn’t Putin our enemy? Why are the Tories taking millions of pounds from his friends – what are they buying? Is siding with the enemy different when the Tories do it?

I would have thought that right now Canada, Australia and New Zealand would be more worried about sharing intelligence with Donald Trump than Corbyn, who is currently being impeached for dodgy dealings with the Russians and Ukrainians. The same with Johnson, who has refused to publish a report into the Russian influence into our elections, until after this one. What is he covering up, his own involvement?

Johnson also has a reputation of loose talk when in sensitive situations. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s charitable arm, is in prison in Iran right now because of Boris Johnson’s big mouth. That was when he was foreign secretary. Imagine the damage he will do as prime minister.

It really does not bear thinking about.

Julie Partridge
London