BFI admits to “systemic racism” and pledges to stamp out discrimination of all forms
The British Film Institute (BFI) has addressed the longstanding claims of systematic racism. The institution claims it is now working to overhaul its system completely, to stamp out discrimination of all forms.
Per a report by euronews, a spokesperson for the institute allegedly admitted to filmmaker Faisal A Qureshi last year that it is “systemically racist” after apologising for the handling of his long-running discrimination complaint. Their apology left Qureshi reeling, saying it was “the kind of apology you’d expect from Just Eat or McDonald’s when you’ve got your order wrong”.
In an exclusive in Deadline, the BFI’s Head of Inclusion, Melanie Hoyes, allegedly told Qureshi during a private meeting that fellow filmmakers of colour had “traumatic experiences” with the BFI. It is claimed that Qureshi sought a formal apology from the BFI over two years ago after filing an official complaint over a funding meeting with a BFI Network representative in 2019. The filmmaker claimed that the former BFI worker in question told him he was ineligible for funding and cited how Qureshi had been “very forthright” about race on social media.
According to Deadline, a senior BFI manager emailed colleagues in April 2022 to assert that Qureshi’s claims of “racially insensitive behaviour” remain unsubstantiated. In July, Qureshi then met with Hoyes in the hope of resolving his old complaint. Reportedly, Hoyes told the filmmaker that she knows the BFI is “systemically racist” and apologised.
Qureshi’s case remains unresolved, and now the BFI’s Chief Executive, Ben Roberts, has revealed that it is putting in place “challenging and thought-provoking” measures to curb discrimination of all kinds.
“As a public funder that is open to all, one of our greatest challenges is managing the inevitably high level of unsuccessful applications,” he explained in a statement. “Failing to secure funding for a project can leave applicants feeling that we are not a place for them, so our job is to make sure that filmmakers stay motivated to apply with future projects, and that we handle challenge and complaint well. We realise that we don’t have a perfect system and we are working hard to make it more user-friendly.”
In a complete overhaul of procedures, the institute is also introducing anti-racism training. Additionally, it has announced that executives of the BFI Film Fund will be hired on fixed-term contracts after director Mia Bays was told been people have been in posts for “too long”. Following this, Bays announced the departure of three executives, Lizzie Francke, Fiona Morham and Natascha Wharton. The BFI has also noted that 35% of productions it backed over the past year have come from ethnically diverse writers, directors and producers, exceeding their target of 30%.
“We’ve seen real progress in the diversity of storytelling supported through the BFI Film Fund,” Roberts continued. “As a public funder and the industry’s lead body, the BFI is rightly held to the highest standards. The work we do in building a more diverse and inclusive organisation, and continuing to improve representation across the screen sectors, is at the heart of our 10-year strategy Screen Culture 2033. Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation is incredibly important to us and I’m proud of how seriously our teams take this work.”
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