Deal inked for film to portray the pivotal role played by British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in launching Notting Hill Carnival

The pivotal role played by British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in launching the world’s largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival, is the focus of a new Canada-UK co-production.
Leading the production is acclaimed Canadian director Frances-Anne Solomon (Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Mr. Ulric Cross). The film will be produced by Solomon’s CaribbeanTales Media Group (CTMG), in partnership with Nadine Marsh-Edwards’ UK-Based Greenacre Films and Lisa Wickham’s Trinidad and Tobago-based Imagine Media International Limited.
Set in London in 1958 as violent race riots ravaged the country, CLAUDIA tells the story of Jones, a Trinidad-born activist deported to England from McCarthyite USA, who comes up with an ingenious plan to unite Britain’s Black and white working classes.
“Claudia was a modern day superhero rooted in the real world, whose remarkable life and achievements straddled the USA, England and the Caribbean.” says Solomon. “I could not be more excited to work with this global team of accomplished Black women to tell this inspiring story.”
“Greenacre Films is proud to partner with Frances-Anne and CaribbeanTales to tell the story of a remarkable Black woman whose achievements helped to shape the London we live in today,” says Marsh-Edwards, whose many acclaimed productions include Been So Long, starring Michaela Cole.
Imagine Media’s CEO Lisa Wickham believes that, “Frances-Anne’s film shines a much-deserved light on a Caribbean-born woman whose rich and beautiful legacy amplifies Black voices and experiences as a whole.”
Joining the team as co-creator and co-writer is British actress, writer and director Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton, Dr. Who, Invictus) and rising British screenwriter Omari McCarthy.
“Claudia’s work promoting women’s rights, Black rights and the rights of the poor and disenfranchised laid the seeds for so much that followed – African and Caribbean independence, civil rights, Pan Africanism and inevitably, today’s Black Lives Matter movement,” adds Adjoa Andoh.
CLAUDIA’s development has been funded by Telefilm Canada. The project is one of thirteen (13) films selected for the Attagurl Program, a unique year-long lab supporting the development and distribution paths of amazing projects by women and non-binary around the world.
Source: Caribbean Riddims, Nov 9, 2020