Global London on Screen

Globalisation is often depicted as a threat to ordinary citizens and a destroyer of cities. This volume challenges such a simplistic view, exploring a wealth of cinematic depictions in order to offer a nuanced picture of life in global London. Analysing the city's cosmopolitan high points, as well as its more troubling migratory histories, exclusionist enclaves and brushes with crime, the book takes in various iconic and less-seen neighbourhoods and cultures. The films covered here present a number of tropes and periods. There are noir films by émigré directors and art films documenting the 1960s and 1970s. There are radical Black British visions of the 1980s and grungy Scandinavian takes from the 1990s. Representing the 2000s and beyond are a new cross-cultural, multi-ethnic set of films from East and South Asia, Africa and Latin America, alongside Hollywood blockbusters that make dramatic use of this iconic mega-city. Showcasing a remarkable array of filmmakers, Global London on screen reveals how they destabilise conceptions of English or British non-global London, challenging universalist preconceptions about the world's most famous city.