All White In Barking

Before, I'd even seen All White In Barking, it proved hard not to accidentally say 'All Mad In Barking' to queueing festival patrons when mentioning the film. An audible pause preceded each such encounter while my brain's vocal centre did its careful treading.

All White In Barking is a documentary from the UK about racism in the charmingly named town of Barking, east of Java... I mean, London. Director Mark Isaacs interviews several longtime locals about their attitudes to the changing demographics of the area, amongst them a working class granddad involved with the right-wing British National Party, a middle-aged white couple who are unsure about their Albanian and African neighbours, and a Holocaust survivor.

My feeling is that the appalling-ness of workaday racism is probably too easy to laugh at when filmed at length, and the first half of All White made it look like it might not get away from this angle. But the director, who just pops questions unemphatically to his subjects while filming them, eventually nudges some of them to try 'stuff' - EG - The white couple are prompted to go have dinner with their African neighbours. Predictably this goes quite well, even if the couple aren't mad about some of the authentic African cuisine they're served, and an even more genial lunch follows with both their neighbours. It's hard to assess how light or heavy is the semi-invisible hand of the filmmaker in proceedings, but he gives us a clear demonstration of the basic antidote to racism, which is that if you go talk one-on-one with the people you don't understand, you'll find out how much you actually have in common with them in about ten to twenty minutes.