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H. O. Nazareth

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H. O. Nazareth
Born
Hubert Oscar Nazareth

1944 (age 79–80)
Bombay, India
Other namesNaz
Alma materUniversity of Kent
Occupation(s)Film maker, writer, journalist and barrister

H. O. "Naz" Nazareth (born 1944) is an Indian-born British film maker, writer, journalist and barrister. Resident in London, England, he was co-founder of the film production company Penumbra.[1][2]

Biography

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Born in Bombay, India, of Goan descent,[3] Hubert Oscar Nazareth at the age of 21 in 1965 went to Britain, where he worked at various jobs, including computer programmer.[4] He went on to study philosophy and politics at the University of Kent,[1] and qualified as a barrister.[4] Nazareth experienced racist treatment in searching for work in the UK, and after witnessing the way police harassed his Afro-Caribbean friends while they left him alone he joined the British Black Panther movement.[5]

As well as writing and performing poetry in London, Nazareth worked as a journalist contributing to the radical political magazine The Leveller and to Time Out, where he was later a member of the group that set up the alternative listings magazine City Limits in 1981.[1]

After interviewing Trinidadian director Horace Ové for The Leveller, Nazareth co-wrote with him the script of the television film The Garland (1981),[6][7] which led to the creation of an independent production company named Penumbra.[1] Alongside Ové and Nazareth, other members of Penumbra Productions included Michael Abbensetts, Lindsay Barrett, Margaret Busby, Farrukh Dhondy, and Mustapha Matura.[8] In 1983, Penumbra Productions made a 60-minute film, Talking History (directed by Nazareth), featuring C. L. R. James in dialogue with E. P. Thompson,[9][10] and Penumbra also filmed a series of six of James's lectures, shown on Channel 4 television, the topics being: Shakespeare; cricket; American society; Solidarity in Poland; the Caribbean; and Africa.[11]

Nazareth was producer of the magazine show Sunday East for Channel 4 in the 1980s. He and director Faris Kermani formed the company Azad Productions (1984–1989) with a focus on programmes for people from the Indian subcontinent, such as in 1986 the television documentaries A Fearful Silence in 1986 (about domestic violence in the Asian community), and A Corner of a Foreign Field (directed by Udayan Prasad) on the lives of Pakistanis in the UK. Among the films Nazareth has produced are Suffer the Children (1988, on apartheid South Africa), Doctors and Torture (1990,[12] about medical involvement in torture in Latin America), China Rocks: The Long March of Cui Jian (1991); Bombay and Jazz (1992),[13][14] and Stories My Country Told Me,[15] on culture and nationalism.[1]

Also a poet,[16] Nazareth published a poetry collection, entitled Lobo, in 1984.[17][18] In addition to writing for The Leveller, as a journalist he has written for such publications as the New Statesman,[19] New African[20] and Marxism Today.[21] He is a contributor to Reflected in Water: Writings on Goa (Penguin India, 2006), edited by Jerry Pinto.[4]

Selected filmography

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  • 1981: The Garland (BBC, Play for Today) – co-writer with Horace Ové[22]
  • 1983: Caribbean (featuring C. L. R. James) – producer
  • 1983: Talking History (featuring C. L. R. James and E. P. Thompson) – director, producer, researcher
  • 1983: Cricket (featuring C. L. R. James) – producer
  • 1983: American Society (featuring C. L. R. James) – producer
  • 1985: Music Fusion (featuring Imdad Husain and Khomiso Khan) – producer
  • 1985: Africa (featuring C. L. R. James) – producer
  • 1985: Khomiso Khan at Camden Lock – producer
  • 1985: Shakespeare (featuring C. L. R. James) – producer
  • 1986: A Corner of a Foreign Field (Channel 4) – producer[23]
  • 1988: Suffer the Children (BBC) – producer[24]
  • 1990: Doctors and Torture (BBC Inside Story series) – producer
  • 1991: China Rocks: The Long March of Cui Jian – producer[25]
  • 1991: Repomen – producer
  • 1992: Bombay and Jazz (BBC) – writer and director[26][27]
  • 1993: The Curry Boys – producer[28]
  • 1993: Gone to the Dogs – producer[29]
  • 1996: Stories My Country Told Me – director[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Bhuchar, Suman (2002). "H O Nazareth". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. pp. 214–215. ISBN 9781134700257.
  2. ^ "H O Nazareth". Spoken Word Archive. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  3. ^ Nazareth, Peter (Winter–Spring 1983). "Introduction". Journal of South Asian Literature. 18 — Goan Literature: A Modern Reader (1): 3. Retrieved 21 December 2020 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ a b c Pinto, Jerry, ed. (2006). "Notes on Contributors". Reflected in Water: Writings on Goa. Penguin Books India. p. 289. ISBN 9780143100812.
  5. ^ Angelo, Anne-Marie (2018). "'Black oppressed people all over the world are one': the British Black Panthers' grassroots internationalism, 1969–1973" (PDF). Journal of Civil and Human Rights. 4 (1): 64–97 (pp. 10–11). doi:10.5406/jcivihumarigh.4.1.0064. ISSN 2378-4245. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Play for Today: The Garland". IMDb.
  7. ^ "Shai Mala Khani The Garland (1981)". BFI. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  8. ^ Busby, Margaret (November 2016). "2015: The Year of Being Connected, Exhibition-wise". Wasafiri. 31 (4).
  9. ^ "E.P. Thompson and C.L.R. James" on YouTube
  10. ^ "Talking History". Time Out. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  11. ^ "Penumbra Productions". BFI. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Doctors and Torture (1990) Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.
  13. ^ "Bombay and Jazz – A documentary 1992". BlueRhythm. 12 June 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  14. ^ Fernandes, Naresh (1 March 2014). "Don Cherry and His Bombay Gumbo". Taj Mahal Foxtrot. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  15. ^ "Stories My Country Told Me: Eqbal Ahmad on the Grand Trunk Road". 11 October 2013 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ Nazareth, H. O. (Winter–Spring 1983). "Nine poems". Journal of South Asian Literature. 18 — Goan Literature: A Modern Reader (1). Retrieved 21 December 2020 – via JSTOR.
  17. ^ Lobo. A. Jussawalla for Clearing House. 1984. p. 67. ISBN 9780946605002.
  18. ^ Chaudhuri, Rosinka, ed. (2016). "Clearing House Books". A History of Indian Poetry in English. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316483275.
  19. ^ Nazareth, H. O. (1 July 1983). "Still an optimist". New Statesman. pp. 8–9.
  20. ^ Nazareth, H. O. (June 1982). "C.L.R. James: The Black Plato". New African. p. 59.
  21. ^ Nazareth, H. O. (April 1990). "Out Of The Ghetto" (PDF). Marxism Today.
  22. ^ "Play for Today: Season 11, Episode 20 – The Garland (10 Mar. 1981)", IMDb.
  23. ^ "A Corner of a Foreign Field (1986)". BFI. Retrieved 21 December 2020.[dead link]
  24. ^ "Suffer the Children (1988)". BFI. Retrieved 21 December 2020.[dead link]
  25. ^ "China Rocks: The Long March of Cui Jian (1991)". IMDb. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  26. ^ "Bombay and Jazz (1992)". IMDb. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  27. ^ "Bombay and Jazz (1992)". BFI. Retrieved 21 December 2020.[dead link]
  28. ^ "The Curry Boys (1993)". BFI. Retrieved 21 December 2020.[dead link]
  29. ^ "Gone to the Dogs (1993)". BFI. Archived from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  30. ^ "Stories My Country Told Me (1996)". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
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