Steve McQueen, who recently directed the acclaimed British anthology film series Small Axe for BBC, will once again team up with the network to direct a documentary series titled Uprising. Billed as a three-part docuseries, Uprising will follow three seminal events of 1981 which redefined race relations in the UK.
Interestingly, two of these events — the gathering of 20,000 people on Black People’s Day of Action and the Brixton riots that occurred the following month — acted as building blocks for the Alex Wheatle segment in Small Axe. It is expected that Uprising will take a deeper look at these events that influenced race relations in the UK.
Filmmaker James Rogan, known for helming the BBC documentary mini-series Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation, will be co-directing Uprising. Rogan and McQueen have previously served as executive producers on BBC’s Black Power and Subnormal.