‘Walter Rodney: What they don’t Want you to Know’

Book tickets for the showing here.

BRHG are very pleased to welcome Arlen Harris (co-director) and Luke Daniels to Bristol to discuss this new documentary profiling the Guyanese revolutionary Walter Rodney.

‘Walter Rodney: What they don’t Want you to Know’ is an original 72-minute documentary featuring a murder, Cold War conspiracies, Black Power, the end of Empire, and how that connects to the policing, surveillance practices and social movements of today. This is the first film where Walter’s widow reveals the personal impact on the family of Walter’s assassination. It feeds a growing global appetite for history from a different perspective, as we grapple with the legacy of empire and colonialism and its impact on the modern world. Contributors include Angela Davis, Gina Miller, former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, Edward and Donald Rodney and Walter’s wife Patricia Rodney, as well as prominent historians. The film premiered at the British Film Institute largest screen to a sell-out audience of 450, the BFI is Britain’s most prestigious film organisation.

We reveal that historian Dr Walter Rodney was under security surveillance from the age of 19, after visiting Russia and Cuba as a student. He was seen as subversive both as an academic and as an activist who supported anti-colonial movements and civil rights. Shockingly, a British secret propaganda unit paid for negative reviews of his work. It was perceived as a threat to the British post-colonial narrative and interests. The book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ is now a staple of university courses across the globe and Rodney is an inspiration for the social movements of today, whether BLM, Pan-Africanism, or reparations.

The documentary uses declassified security service documents, revealing interviews and reconstruction to tell an important, yet little known story. filmed with local crews in six countries in the Caribbean, US, Africa and the UK detailing Rodney’s global influence.

Supported by The Walter Rodney Foundation & The Ameena Gafoor Institute