Review: CHILDREN’S CHILDREN, Black Apron Entertainment

Children’s Children is a series of five short films exploring the past and present in order to celebrate Black History. The series, curated by Amber James, takes a look at how technology, access to and the presentation of information has changed; and how much of the past actually remains in the present day.

The series is produced by Black Apron Entertainment, directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu and Rikki Beadle-Blair, and stars Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Amber James, Kayla Meikle, Sule Rimi and Khai Shaw. 

The pieces explore previous literature in the shape of poems, readings and true life stories to compile a short piece for each of them to retell. The surroundings of each of the pieces are bleak and bland, meaning that the focus stays solely on the actor and doesn’t distract and detract from what is being said.

Kayla Meikle opens with Sojourners Truth Piece, which follows themes of inequality for Black women from the past and up to present day; Gershwyn Eustache Jnr’s piece discusses how colleagues do not wish to be seen with Black people and how integration hasn’t changed; and Sule Rimi speaks about how difficult it is for young Black people to get jobs and to improve in the community, whilst constantly being hindered by society.

All five pieces excel at making you feel something. Amber James’ piece, in particular, contains language that evokes strong emotions of shame and disgust. To hear that she was called “little Black girl” repeatedly really hits home that people are treated like this and the pure racism that accompanies the sentence “where are you from little Black girl?” and “India and Africa, they’re the same place?” portrays prejudice so honestly. 

Perhaps the most striking piece out of the five is the final one, whereby Khai Shaw in Still Shadey’s Piece repeatedly says “A Change Must Come” and someone off camera is claiming not to hear him. The message here is that what is being said isn’t being heard and not only that, it picks up on the fact that people were outraged by what happened in 2020 and the advances on the Black Lives Matter movement. This isn’t new for them, they have lived this life for years and it isn’t “just for Instagram”.

A raw, thought-provoking and honest piece.  

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Emma Littler

Children’s Children is available to watch now via YouTube here and Instagram here.