Steve McQueen dedicates his two new films to George Floyd

The death of George Floyd mobilizes black filmmakers. After Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee, it is the turn of the British Steve McQueen to pay tribute to this African-American who died during a police check in Minneapolis last week. The director of Twelve Years a Slave dedicated his next two films, Mangrove and Lovers Rock, to this man who became the symbol of victims of police violence and to the Black Lives Matter movement .

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"I dedicate these films to George Floyd, and to all the other black people who were murdered, visible or invisible, because of their skin color, in the United States, in the United Kingdom and everywhere else, " he said. he told Deadline after the Cannes Film Festival announced the selection of his two productions on Wednesday. "If you are the big tree, we are the little ax. Black lives matter, ” added the director, referring to the original title of his project Small Ax (“ little ax ”), named after an African proverb and a song by Bob Marley.

Announced as a series, Small Ax will ultimately be an anthology of five films broadcast by the BBC and Amazon Prime and of which Mangrove and Lovers Rock , which will benefit from a theatrical release in France, are part. Each film tells a different story within the West Indian community in London from the 1960s to the 1980s, against a background of racism and discrimination. The first film features the group of black activists from Mangrove Nine while the second mixes love story and music. On the bill of these two feature films, we find young black actors like Laetitia Wright ( Black Panther ), Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn ( Harry Potter ) and Malachi Kirby ( Black Mirror ).

John Boyega, star of the latest Star Wars trilogy , is also one of the five films, the American media said. The actor of The Last Jedi was spotted Wednesday in London where he gave a powerful speech during the events in tribute to George Floyd. " Let the black United States of America know that we are with them ," he said to the overwhelming crowd. I speak to you with my heart. I don't know if I'm going to have a career after that but never mind. "