Clovis Salmon obituary

Documentary film-maker who recorded both mundane and monumental events in Brixton over several decades, including in the aftermath of the 1981 riots

“I’ve always believed in the power of stories to bring people together, to bridge divides, and to create unity – no matter our race or background,” said Clovis Salmon on accepting a lifetime achievement award at the National Diversity awards in Liverpool last year. Salmon, who has died aged 98, was regarded as the UK’s first Black documentary film-maker, and chronicled life in his neighbourhood – Brixton, in south London – over several decades.

He is said to have taken 50,000ft of documentary footage of the community from the 1950s up to the present. Recorded at a time when many of the UK’s established institutions, libraries, museums and archives, were not allocating space to the historical perspectives of marginalised communities, Salmon’s films offer a valuable cultural history of the area as well as a unique viewpoint of Black London that was often missing from the mainstream narrative. His footage featured in notable documentaries for the BBC and the British Film Institute, with several reels now preserved at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton.