Nubia Way: a story of black-led self building in Lewisham
2023 · 21m · UK
Directed by Timi Akindele-Ajani
Genres: documentary
Tones: provocative, tender, whimsical
In the mid-1990s, a group of Black Londoners formed London’s first Black-led housing co-operative—Fusions Jameen—and built thirteen timber-frame houses by hand in Lewisham as an act of resistance against racist housing exclusion. The film weaves Super 8 archival footage with contemporary interviews to recover this nearly forgotten chapter of Black British and architectural history.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Recovered Super 8 of a Black self-build housing co-op in 1990s Lewisham, told by the residents. That's a real archival rescue — even if the doc itself is informational rather than formal.
Akindele-Ajani recovers London's first Black-led housing co-operative through Super 8 footage shot by a resident-builder — the archival sourcing keeps the community's authorship intact. A measured architectural-history documentary of genuine recovery.
Recovers an almost-unknown piece of Black British architectural history through rare Super 8 footage shot by a resident during the original 1990s build — that found-footage provenance is the doc's strongest asset because no contemporary recreation could match it. 21:10 well-earned.
Reviews
The current residents of Nubia Way present their story with warmth, charisma, pride, and dignity.
Filmmaking is a powerful device to document and share lesser-known histories. Thirty years on, Nubia Way’s lessons of resistance, creativity and community were known only to the handful of original self-builders—it was imperative that the legacy of Nubia Way was never forgotten.