Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams story at the "I Will Tell" London Black Film Festival by Karen Turner

During the second week of May, London played host to the Black Film Festival. For one week a carefully selected collection of films were shown across two cinema venues in London.

From a personal aspect, I didn’t think the event itself was publicised very well, I myself had not seen any press regarding it, and If I am honest, had I not been asked to attend I probably would never have even known the event took place. The lack of press and buzz surrounding the event was made more apparent judging by the number of empty seats left in the cinema- which was a great shame.

I attended the viewing of Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams story, starring Jamie Foxx. The evening itself was very well organised; there were lots of friendly and highly enthusiastic representatives about. There was an opening speech from one of the key event organisers and the evening closed with a live discussion about some of the prevalent themes in the film; discussion was led by two individuals who themselves like the film character Stan had partaken in gang warefare to some extent during their lives. This rounded off a really great and insightful evening as it gave the audience a chance to interact with each other,





‘Redemption’ tells the real-life story of Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams; a man who gained notoriety for orchestrating and founding the Crips’; one of the largest and most violently active gangs in the world. Most of the films action takes place from inside of Stan’s cell where he is serving life imprisonment whilst awaiting death by lethal injection for his part in the murder of four men. From within this confined space we see Stan undergo a sort of metamorphosis as he renounces his former gang affiliation and becomes an anti-gang activist. He comes in to contact with the journalist Barbara Becnel, who wants to research and write a story about him. It is from the interaction between these two that we learn more about Stan’s life, his childhood and the events that led to his involvement with the Crip’s movement. From behind bars Stan sets about wholly redeeming and reforming himself-with great effect. He dedicates his time to creating children’s books written with the intention of discouraging young kids from getting involved in gangs, violence and drugs.

The books are a world-wide success and even earn Stan a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. As a result there was much controversy about his story in the media with a large group of protesters believing that his death sentence should be lifted; however various appeals were applied for and subsequently rejected.

Jamie Foxx delivers a powerful and emotionally charged performance. The fact that you find yourself warming towards and feeling for a character that has done so much to tear apart and destroy a generation of young black men is a testament to Jamie’s performance; he gets the balance just right. I do think that the film would have benefited from a more enriched and detailed account of the reasons behind Stan’s destructive gang affiliation; why did he choose that route in life, why at such a young age did he see this as his only option in life, and what could have prevented him from making such life choices?

The film does however raise the important issue of ‘redemption‘; and although Stan does succeed in turning his life, values and attitude around for the better by using his predicament to help prevent others from the same fate, I couldn’t help but ask was it ever possible that he could wholly redeem himself and correct the ills he had wrought on society?

This is a thought-provoking, emotional and sad film, and given the current state of teen gang violence rife in the UK at the moment, the themes apparent in this film appear all the more poignant. Over the past few years the rise in black on black teen violence has reached terrifying heights and for this reason more than any other I think this film deserves and needs a lot more exposure, especially in the UK and I think that it was a very worthy film to be shown during the British Black Film Festival.

I would certainly recommend that everyone see’s this film; indeed it does have a very strong, specific identity that perhaps only certain groups, from certain areas, cultures and lifestyles could truly relate to, but the idea of ‘Redemption’ and changing one’s life around for the better is universal and with that in mind everyone can take something away from this film, making it a cinema ‘must-watch’.