Steve McQueen’s ‘Small Axe’ Anthology Trailer Tells Lesser-Known Stories Of Black Resilience

Instead of making one very good film, Widows and 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen has made five very good-sounding (and probably very good!) films. Small Axe is an anthology series coming to Amazon Prime Video where each episode is “inspired by real-life events about ordinary people showing courage, belief, and resilience to overcome injustice and achieve something transformative in their West Indian community,” according to the official plot synopsis. Each installment, including “pure musical euphoria” Lovers Rock, has a different cast, including John Boyega.

“In our mainstream education system, we don’t learn about these specific stories,” the actor told the Hollywood Reporter about Small Axe, which takes its name from a Jamaican proverb. “Any historical information I know about Black British history, about me as an African, and then also the Caribbeans as well, is mostly from community stuff. Various different extracurricular activities that I would take outside of school was the only place that expanded our knowledge on other parts of our history that wasn’t just Henry VIII.” Small Axe also stars Letitia Wright, Malachi Kirby, Shaun Parkes, and Sheyi Cole.

Here’s the release date schedule.

1. Mangrove (November 15)

2. Lovers Rock (November 22)

3. Red, White, and Blue (November 29)

4. Alex Wheatle (December 6)

5. Education (December 13)

Watch the trailer above.