The BFI are now showcasing a 1961 film by legendary Caribbean writers Sylvia Wynter and her then-husband, Jan Carew. The film is currently free to watch on the BFI website.
Based on real events, The Big Pride follows three convicts in British Guyana who escape from prison but alert the authorities to their breakout when their plan goes awry. Leader Sutlej (William Marshall) takes teenager Smallboy Dowling (Johnny Sekka) under his wing, but they soon find that pride and family ties threaten to ruin their desperate bids for freedom.
The Big Pride is a bold single drama made for ITV’s challenging Drama '61 slot. Guyana-born novelist Jan Carew and Jamaican critic Sylvia Wynter were among the leading Caribbean authors of the 1950s and 1960s. Star William Marshall would later find movie fame as William Crains' Blacula a decade later (1971).
The film was almost entirely forgotten until it was discovered and restored by the British Film Institute in the 1990s. It has been described by writer and historian Stephen Bourne as 'a unique visual record of the work of two important dramatists'.
The group Quilting Points at the University of Leeds are also screening the film in person on Tuesday 13 June. They will be holding a discussion afterwards, and will provide refreshments.
For more information and to watch the film now, check out the BFI website.
