Watching documentaries centred around Black people is a source of pride for me.

With a rich and far-ranging history, there is so much to explore about the Black diaspora – from the good and bad – and it is exciting to see our history play out on screen for us all to grow and learn from.

But with many of those documentaries, comes a particular focus on race, crime and music – something which has become the centre of criticism in a new report.

The report, Black in Fact – Beyond the White Gaze, which was conducted by documentary producer Cherish Oteka and commissioned by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, reviewed 275 documentary programmes between April and May last year and found race and racism were still the top subject matters when a programme featured a Black person.

Crime was the second most popular subject matter that centres Black people, followed by music.

“The representation of Black people is not varied or nuanced enough,” the report states.

“Speaking about crime and racism is important. However, when crime and racism are content pillars through which the Black experience is shared it can do more harm than good.

While crime, race and music are all areas worth exploring, the Black experience is often limited to these three pillars, making this consistent representation repetitive and also harmful.

This is further shown in the report by Black filmmakers who say they experienced pushback when working on content that goes against stereotypical representations of Black people, while Black production company owners were not being given the same opportunities as non-Black production company owners.

The report also found many of the filmmakers enjoy working on programmes that centre Black voices, but feel they are being pigeon-holed and not offered roles that are outside of race.

“The overrepresentation of Black people in association with crime reinforces the cloak of suspicion that many Black people have to navigate the world with,” the report reads.

“Racism being the number one central theme explored when the central contributor is Black reinforces Black people as other, who are only called upon to speak about their experiences in relation to the trauma of being Black.

“As well as these subject areas being damaging for how non-Black people perceive the Black community, it is damaging to how Black people view themselves. In this current cycle of the media making amends, a more holistic view must be taken.” 

Image: Getty