Michaela Coel and the “complicated tapestry” of contemporary British cinema
Going through something of a whirlwind of an identity crisis as it tries to desperately claw for commercial success, the British film industry of 2023 is struggling to define exactly what it wants to be. As well as the actor strike that is causing a ripple effect from across the Atlantic, the industry remains shell-shocked by the effects of the pandemic, with British cinema in need of a shining light to help it through troubled waters.
The titanic force of British culture, Michaela Coel, may be the individual with the creative might and charismatic solidity to shine like a beacon for the fragile vessel. Having risen through the ranks of the industry, gaining significant clout on every rung of the ladder, Coel is a stable force worthy of mooring alongside. Starring in and writing the subversive Channel 4 comedy Chewing Gum back in 2015, Coel began to gain a reputation as a cultural eccentric, giving the industry the much-needed shake-up it warranted before her Emmy and BAFTA award-winning show I May Destroy You made her a formidable artist and a cultural spokesperson for the soul of contemporary London five years later.
As an idol to many burgeoning British creatives, Coel was an obvious choice for BMW when deciding upon a mentor for their filmmaking challenge. Carried out in collaboration with the BFI, it has tasked several groups of aspiring directors to create short films tailor-made for the i7’s new 31.3-inch backseat screen. “I just invested in them as artists and creators of the future,” Coel told us during an enlightening conversation, “Basically, I was just the person you could call for no particular reason”.
A sagacious figure for each of the directors behind the five shortlisted films, Coel was happy to assist with every aspect of each project’s creation, from the 90-second scripts to the unique widescreen cinematography. “The five shortlisted filmmakers were the five that met the brief of the ultra-wide screen,” she said of the final group of projects, with many of the issues they faced reflecting the difficult reality of getting anything from page to screen, “Money. Time. Edit. Script”.
These words haunt any burgeoning creative working to get a project across the line with a tripod bag digging into their back. As a veteran of grassroots filmmaking herself, Coel’s enthusiasm regarding the winning project is self-evident. “It was very flashy, they spent the least amount of money, they shot it in the least amount of time. But also the story is very exhilarating,” Coel beamed in reference to the winning film, We Collide, directed by Jason Bradbury.
Locked into a state of lively creative expression, she grinned, “Jason’s kind of exploring, moshing and this queer chord scene. It’s fucking sick! I’ve never seen this in film or TV. I associate punk and moshing with particular kinds of people that maybe are not very embracing of queer or people of coloured communities. But this was a story in which everybody is moshing. I’ve never seen that before and it was done really beautifully, really simply”.
Although judging duties were given to Ncuti Gatwa, Terri White, and Asif Kapadia, We Collide well reflected Coel’s own commitment to creations that challenge mainstream perception and give voice to previously unheard subsections of society. Her own 2020 series, I May Destroy You, explored such themes, empowering victims of sexual assault and violence whilst elevating persecuted black and LGBTQIA+ voices in contemporary Britain.
Where once, such stories were few and far between in British cinema, with seemingly one Bullet Boy existing for every ten Richard Curtis-inspired twee romantic dramas before the flourishing of the internet in the early 2000s, audiences of independent cinema have begun to crave diversity of voices and stories in contemporary culture. Mentioning such marketable British exports as Four Weddings and A Funeral and Notting Hill, Coel outlines that homegrown cinema at the dawn of the new millennium reflected a “totally made-up mainstream London” but states that she has great hope for the future of independent voices.
Highlighting recent successes as Sarah Gavron’s 2019 coming-of-age drama Rocks and Raine Allen Miller’s electric portrait of London, Rye Lane, Coel is encouraged by the light that glimmers off the shores of British cinema. “I feel like the more we crave these stories, the more we’re gonna have to give people that don’t really exist in the mainstream an opportunity to do the work, and often that is independent movies. I know right now it’s a struggle, but I honestly have hope.”
As a true bastion of diversity in contemporary British cinema, Coel isn’t adamant that every feature film and TV project must display a uniform vision of the country. “I think everybody should do exactly what they want, as long as everybody gets to do it,” she diplomatically states, with her bold desire for British cinema reflecting exactly the kind of inspiring industry vision that we could do with at the very top.
Elaborating on her hope for such a vibrant landscape, Coel explains: “As long as everybody else gets to make the film they want to make as well, and then what we have is this diverse, complicated tapestry of London. That’s what we have if we all get to create. I think it’s boring when you do something like that. I’m sorry. I just think audiences have varied tastes, and I think as long as we are catering to that, then we’re good.”
This hunger to show a “complicated tapestry” of the British capital is very much reflected in Coel’s own diverse mosaic of contemporary favourites that best represent each corner of the city. “The song that I’m still not over is ‘Last Laugh’ by Ceechynaa,” she begins, once again unable to hold back a mental frisson of inspiration as she praises the sound of the “hardcore East Londoner” whose “visceral” song spits with frenetic “vengeance.”
Aside from ‘Last Laugh’, which she admits to having played “maybe 30 times” back-to-back, Coel also shines a spotlight on the flurry of young love that blossoms in Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play, which has just completed a stint touring the stages of Britain, as well as Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, which starred her I May Destroy You co-star Paapa Essiedu, an individual of immediate interest whose cultural stature pauses the flurry of recommendations.
In the midst of Britain’s film industry woes, one institutionally-sized star we can always rely on for financial liberation is James Bond, and with Daniel Craig having now departed the series in a controversial hail of missiles, Essiedu has emerged as an unlikely contender. “The way that so many people around me feel this, it makes me feel like he is going to be the next James Bond,” Coel excitedly ponders, “That’s how it feels. And I wouldn’t be surprised. And you know what? He’s so fucking swaggy and cool that I don’t even think he would be surprised.”
Despite her enthusiasm, she’s quick to elaborate that she’s never engaged with the franchise enough to “be here frothing at the mouth for a black one”. Yet, just as she outlined her desires for the diversity of independent cinema, the grandeur of 007 is no different, “I’m sure we’d love a black one. We’d love a female one. We’d love a queer one. We’d love a trans one. I think we just want to be everywhere. We want to see everything everywhere… It would be great if, you know, that happened”.
Just like the maverick spy who will undoubtedly be a key fixture in the future of British cinema, the same can most certainly be said for Coel, whose influence on the future of burgeoning filmmakers is unparalleled. “I can take my time, I don’t need to rush, I don’t need to be afraid to disappear,” she states with humble confidence, making reference to her own industry mentor, filmmaker Hugo Blick.
Learning, growing and adapting to an ever-changing film industry, Coel is a potent force for creative diversity, giving hope to a British landscape that has already begun to boast its rich tapestry of voices.
