Sir Steve McQueen - Black History Month💫

Mary_Scope

Part One - Black History Month 2025
Part Two - Claudia Jones
Part Three - Ade Adepitan
Part Four - Barbara Stewart

Sir Steve McQueen was born on 9th October 1969 and is a highly acclaimed British artist, film director and screenwriter. He is also the first Black filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

He was born in London to Grenadian and Trinidadian parents and Steve faced significant challenges at school. He is dyslexic and had to wear an eye patch for a “lazy eye”.

As a result of this, he was automatically placed in lower stream classes for students expected to do manual labour when they left school. Steve has described this experience as "institutional racism." He pursued art at Hammersmith and West London College, Chelsea College of Arts and Goldsmiths, University of London.

Steve began his career as a visual artist, gaining fame for his minimalist and often black and white short films. He won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1999 which is the highest honour in British contemporary art. He also served as an official war artist in Iraq in 2006.

He moved to feature films with Hunger (2008), about the 1981 Irish hunger strike which won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.

This was followed by the critically praised film Shame (2011) and his major international breakthrough was 12 Years a Slave (2013). The film was a monumental success and won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Drama) and the BAFTA for Best Film.

Steve’s later works include Widows (2018) and the anthology series Small Axe (2020) which is a collection of five films showing the lives of London's West Indian community. He also co-directed the 2021 documentary series Uprising.

For his significant contributions to the arts, Steve was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2011 and was made a Knight Bachelor in 2020 for his services to art and film.

Have you seen any of his films?

Catherine21

Yes 12 years a slave very harrowing was suprised that slavery was still around in the 60s !! I worry with the rise of reform i really worry for my daughter its heartbreaking ahe has faced discrimination over her life it tears my heart out and with conquer and divide tactics used for centuries will it ever change im dyslexic been reading alot of people with dyslexia are quite smart i obviously got the raw end