A cinematic essay on racial issues and civil unrest in 1980s Great Britain, Handsworth Songs — directed by John Akomfrah, one of today’s most acclaimed artists — captures the riots that erupted in 1985, in London and in the district of Handsworth in Birmingham, in reaction to repressive policing of Black communities. Interlacing these images with archival materials, the film depicts civil disorder as symptomatic of a broader history of dissatisfaction, connected to the plight of national industrial decline. Winner of the British Film Institute’s Grierson Award.