Hard Light Cinema

🌊 Part 3/4 of our Black Atlantic series

Suffused with iconic reggae, dub, and Lovers Rock tracks, the second installment in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series unfolds over the course of one night in early-1980s West London, as a young woman (the luminous Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) sneaks out to attend a house party. As the alternately languorous and ecstatic rhythms pulse from a homemade sound system, romance sparks on the dance floor, small human dramas play out, and, for a moment, this gathering is a safe haven from the outside world. Aided by the sensuous cinematography of Shabier Kirchner, McQueen captures an exhilarating expression of Black joy in a society often intent on stifling it.

— Lewis Peterson, Hard Light Cinema