‘Pressure’ 1976 film on Windrush generation to premiere in UK, New York
Published:Monday | October 9, 2023 | 12:07 AMAnthony Turner/Gleaner Writer
NY:
New York-based actress, humanitarian and radio personality Sheron Hamilton-Pearson was on cloud nine last week when The Gleaner spoke with her by phone about her appearance in the iconic 1976 UK film, Pressure.
The film has been remastered by the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive and The Film Foundation’s 4K restoration and will have a joint world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival and 61st New York Film Festival. The UK screening is being heavily promoted on BBC TV in England. The NY screening, which she will attend, will be held at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan on October 11, 12 and 13.
The film - the first to capture the experience of the Windrush generation, the kids who came with them and those born in the UK - follows Tony as he leaves school and encounters discrimination despite his best efforts to blend in with white society. Hamilton-Pearson, was born in London to Jamaican parents, plays the role of the Sister.
Described as “a gritty and dynamic study of a generation in crisis”, Pressure was co-written by Horace Ové with starring roles by Herbert Norville, Oscar James and Frank Singuineau. Ové, who was born in Trinidad, died on September 16, 2022 in London. Besides Pressure, he was the first to document the arrival of reggae from Jamaica to the UK with his documentary titled Reggae (1971). He was bestowed a Knighthood (CBE) in 2022.
“The film is a fitting tribute to all the parents who left the comfort of their homelands to travel to the Motherland,” Hamilton-Pearson told The Gleaner.
“The injustice and racism they faced will forever be captured in this film and others that followed – but without the tenacity of Horace Ové and the British Film Industry – this story would never have been told. The film also told a part of the struggle of the Black Power Movement, of which I was a youth member so the film is so personal and redolent with memories ...I ’m happy that he [Ové] received his flowers before making his transition. He is undoubtedly a pioneer in black British history and his work provides a perspective on the black experience in Britain,” she shared.
Hamilton-Pearson, who studied drama and who currently resides in New York, lived with her grandparents in St Thomas and Kingston, Jamaica in the late 1960s - 1970s.
Reflecting on her time spent in Jamaica, she said, “It was an extremely exciting time to live in Jamaica. The music was changing from the colonial blueprint and the birth of reggae was igniting fires across the island. That period of time was the genesis for the foundation of where we stand now. Artistes like Bob Marley & the Wailers, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Toots Hibbert, Ken Boothe and so many others were honing their craft and pushing the new style of music.”
Committed to Jamaica, Hamilton Pearson received a community service award from the Family Unification and Resettlement Initiative in 2013 for a fundraising effort which provided computers for their computer lab in Jamaica. She also received an Award of Merit from the Jamaica Progressive League, the New York State Assembly; a Congressional Recognition in 2018 and a Foundation Award from the Lawman Lynch Foundation in May 2023.