UK NEWS

VIOLENT GANG FILM BANNED

Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare were murdered six years ago

Sunday November 8,2009

By Ted Jeory

A FILM funded with public money and exposed by the Sunday Express for promoting gang violence has been pulled from cinemas after threats of drive-by shootings.

Gangster rap film 1 Day, made with £380,000 of Lottery cash, has been withdrawn from cinemas in Birmingham and surrounding towns over fears it could spark bloodshed.

An anonymous email claiming to be from the girlfriend of a gang chief was sent to cinemas last week warning them of shootings at film screenings.

It has underlined concerns reported in the Sunday Express two months ago that some of Britain’s most notorious gangs would use the film as a trigger for a turf war.

Those fears are shared by sections of West Midlands Police, with a crime prevention off- icer advising cinemas not to show it.

Film bosses elsewhere, sensing a financial disaster, have since placed adverts in local papers boasting about its notoriety which say: “See the movie that has been banned in four UK cities.” Security is being beefed up at cinemas that are screening it.

The film was made in Handsworth, Birmingham, and is based on the evil Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew gangs which murdered teenagers Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis in a drive-by shooting at a New Year’s Day party in 2003.

To the outrage of their families, film director Penny Woolcock used Lottery cash provided by the Screen West Midlands quango to pay former gang members to star in the film. It premiered in London last month and was due for general release in Birmingham last week.

However, days before its Midlands launch, a police officer advised two Birmingham cinema managers not to show it. When the anonymous email was circulated, six cinemas in Birmingham, Coventry, Walsall and Dudley dropped the film from their schedules.

Film director Ms Woolcock accused police of acting in a “shameful” manner. She said: “Even if 1 Day did glamorise gun violence, which it certainly does not, I do not think it is the function of the local police to go round saying what films should be shown and which ones shouldn’t. Let people decide for themselves.”

Assistant Chief Constable Suzette Davenport refuted the claims, saying a single police officer had been acting alone and not following a force policy.

She said: “At no time have we as a force sought to ban the film, quite simply because we have no powers to do so and would never seek to act as a censor.” But senior officers had felt it glossed over some of the real outcomes of gang violence, she added.

“One officer who has seen and dealt first-hand with the effects of gang violence on victims and their families did express a personal view about the film, with the best of intentions.” Beverley Thomas, Charlene’s mother, said: “No cinema should be showing it.”