We are privileged to bring this archival film back to the screen alongside a Q&A panel with Black Joy’s lead actors Trevor Thomas (Ben) and Baroness Floella Benjamin OM DBE DL (Miriam) whose work also spans across presenting, writing, and politics.

Join us at the bar after for networking drinks from 8.30 pm.

BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS is a curated season of cinema exploring the breadth, complexity, and creative possibility of Black cinematic storytelling. Running across London from October to December 2026, we are bringing together independent films, filmmaker conversations, and an industry discussion to extend discourse around representation, authorship, and the cultural visibility of Black cinema beyond Black History Month.

Ben (Trevor Thomas), an innocent immigrant from a remote village in Guyana, arrives into Brixton with a full wallet and a packed suitcase. When he bumps into Devon,a young streetwise boy with an eye on his money, he is taken for a fool - but is gradually drawn into the boy’s charismatic family circle, which includes Floella Benjamin in one of her earliest roles. Nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1977, and produced shortly after Horace Ové’s landmark film Pressure, Black Joy is both a culture-clash comedy and an unflinching look at the social and financial issues facing Black Britons.

Director Anthony Simmons came from a legal background - formerly a barrister; his debut work, the short documentary Sunday by the Sea (1953), won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival.

98mins (15)

Dir: Anthony Simmons Prod: Elliot Kastner/ Martin Campbell 

Supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund awarding National Lottery Good Cause funding, with additional support from the National Film and Television School.