Is this why BFI cancelled African Odysseys ?Goodbye Uncle Tom: Banned Slavery film #shorts

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:02][music] [music] [music] [music] >> We're here to look at this extraordinary film made in the early 70s, uh Zio Tom, Uncle Tom, Goodbye Uncle Tom in fact, made by two um outrageous Italians. Um one of the few uh attempts to show slavery and the slave trade that hurts. So, you watch it and you're either appalled or you're revolted or you're shocked.

[00:00:51]>> [music] >> It's been banned for like 35 years cuz of the subject matter of the content because it made people feel because it actually dealt with the realities of slavery as opposed to the kind of glossy coverings we tend to get. Today when we look at it, what we see is that it was almost certainly disappeared because the critics were part of a culture that's hugely in denial about the horrors of the slavery episode, which is what this uh spoof historical documentary sets up effectively.

[00:01:25]>> [music] [music] >> This is a disturbing film.

[00:01:38]Uh uh in terms of the way it handles its content, um but it's also a challenging film and as cinema. The The two Italian directors of this film made which started in the early 60s with a film called Mondo Cane, which was a shock documentary film.

[00:01:53]Uh completely unlike what we thought of as documentary in this country at that time.

[00:02:00]For lots of reasons which I'll go into afterwards. They made a second film about Africa which was as just as controversial as the one you're going to WATCH THIS AFTERNOON.

[00:02:12]>> [screaming] >> SO THIS FILM GOODBYE UNCLE Tom looks at the the viciousness of of the American slave trade. killed her please lads.

[00:02:30]And you're right. The moral ambiguity that these mondo documentaries have always had is is is inherent in this.

[00:02:35]It's something you we we can only decide once we've watched the film and and discussed it. I'll leave you to decide whether that this a film that's bad or whether it's us that's bad.