THE VOICE has learned the sad news of the passing of Award Winning Film Director Menelik Shabazz.

The cause of death at this time is unknown. Our thoughts are with the immediate family and friends.

Best known for being at the forefront of the contemporary British filmmaking for more than 30 years the Barbados-born producer, educator and writer, acknowledged as a pioneer in the development of independent Black British cinema will be sorely missed.

Menelik, along with other individuals, founded Ceddo Film Video Workshop in 1982. It was Menelik’s vision to empower black film production, training and film screenings.

Funded by Channel Four and the British Film Institute, Ceddo created groundbreaking film production and community training intiatives, and hosted a number of screenings with filmmakers including Spike Lee ( School Daze).

Despite attempts to produce further drama projects, Menelik was unable to raise funding from within the film and television industry. In frustration, he withdrew from filmmaking in 1998.

Menelik then channelled his energies into publishing Black Filmmaker (bfm) magazine to assist the next generation of  filmmakers. The publication was the first of its kind and was distributed in UK nationally, as well as to readers in Europe and North America. The publication lasted nine years.

Taking to Instagram the Legacy Center Of Excellence, a community organisation which prides themselves on being Europe’s largest Black business and Arts Centre, wrote: “We’ve just heard of the sad passing of Award Winning Film Director Menelik Shabazz @menelikshabazz –

“We are thankful for him bringing an accurate portrayal of the Black British experience to our screens with the critically acclaimed movies Burning An Illusion and The Story of Lovers Rock.

“In 2019 he released his documentary Pharaohs Unveiled, and we had the pleasure of hosting his lunch at Legacy. Thank you Menelik, may you RIP.”

Soon after publishing BFM magazine Menelik founded the bfm International Film Festival in 1999. The Festival provided a siginificant platform for black world cinema and British talent.

A foundation template for the screening of black cinema, inspiring future generations, the bfm International Film Festival became the biggest of its kind in Europe and lasted eleven years.

In 2007, Menelik went to Nigeria to work with investors to produce film projects in the burgeoning industry known as Nollywood. This experience lasted only eight months but the experience and  change of scenery rekindled the passion in Menelik to return to filmmaking. The digital technology experience in Nigeria offered a way back into filmmaking on his own terms.

In 2008 started to film a feature length documentary project that became known as  The Story of Lover’s Rock.  It became one of the highest grossing documentaries in UK cinemas in 2011. It also won the Jury award for Best Documentary at the Trinidad International Film Festival in 2012.

Menelik’s story continued with an acclaimed documentary Looking For Love, a film which looks at black male/female relationships in the UK. Menelik has recently developed a dramatic TV pilot for a series set in Barbados called HEAT.

His most recent film release is a documentary called Pharaohs Unveiled which explores Kemetic history, spirituality and psychic channelling. 

It’s understood by the Voice that Shabazz was filming in Africa earlier this year on what looks like was his last project, Spirits Return.

In his last blog Menelik wrote: “Spirits Return is a feature drama ancestral love story about Nubia a British woman who visits Zimbabwe searching for her cultural and ancestral roots. She gets more than she bargains for when she meets the ex-boyfriend who dumped her in the UK.

“But there is an ancestral dimension that comes into play as she tries to make sense of her emotional and spiritual turmoil.

“The idea for Spirits Return was hatched during lockdown in Zimbabwe. It didn’t start off with a love story it was intended to be a project similar to my last docu/drama Pharaohs Unveiled.

“I wanted to retell the story of ancient Zimbabwe based on the work of Neferatiti Ife. Yet even though I was seeing an version of my previous film I always want to do something slightly different creatively. This opened me up to the ideas of using actors acting out dialogue in a monologue format.

“I had a number of readings with the actors that helped me continue to develop the idea. Once I went down this road more ideas opened up, until I introduced a new character Nubia, from outside of the world I had created, a character who was on a journey of discovery that pulls the narrative together. Then the question then becomes ‘who was she?’

“‘What is her back story and where was her emotional centre?”