White Riot

Director: Rubika Shah

A timely reminder of punk’s wider political impact.

A love letter to political idealism in punk-era London, debut director Rubikah Shah’s lively documentary chronicles the birth of Rock Against Racism. Blending contemporary interviews with archive footage and animated graphics, White Riot explores how RAR blossomed from a handful of like-minded left-wing activists in an East London print shop to a nationwide movement capable of organising huge multicultural street demonstrations and outdoor concerts featuring The Clash, Steel Pulse, Tom Robinson and more.

Taking her visual cues from RAR’s self-produced punk fanzine Temporary Hoarding, Shah assembles her film with a self-consciously lo-fi DIY collage aesthetic. Interviewees include Selecter singer Pauline Black, legendary dub reggae producer Dennis Bovell, Steel Pulse frontman Mykaell Riley and Pervez Bilgrami of pioneering Anglo-Asian punks Alien Kulture.

This fascinating chapter in Britrock history deserves a more critical and nuanced investigation, but White Riot is still a thrilling reminder that music and politics can sometimes empower each other. ■■■■■■■■■■