Being Blacker

After a ten years absence, acclaimed independent filmmaker Molly Dineen is back with a new feature documentary: Being Blacker, an intimate portrait of Jamaican-born reggae producer, recordshop owner, father, son and prominent community figure, Blacker Dread aka Steve Burnett-Martin. 40 years after featuring in Dineen’s first film Sound Business (1981), Blacker and his family, friends and community in South London face the combined challenges of rapid social change, gentrification, inequality, poverty, crime and racism as they seek to secure their futures.

Made with intimacy and warmth, the film takes us deep into Blacker’s world as he buries his mother, closes his business and faces prison for the first time. Being Blacker offers a rarely-heard perspective on life in Britain today.