Renell Shaw, composer, songwriter and Associate Artist of Hackney Empire, today releases a new video to accompany his Ivor Novello award-winning composition The Vision They Had (From The Windrush Suite).
A deeply personal work, featuring the voices of his grandparents and his mother telling their stories, overlaid with original visuals, the video features a talented ensemble of West End dancers, with debut choreography from Delycia Belgrave (Legally Blonde, White Christmas, Guys and Dolls).
Renell has teamed up with the FUTURE channel from the creator of Secret Cinema to release the film at 19.00 GMT on Wednesday 31 March 2021. The Future channel has over 540,000 subscribers showing the most emotive and powerful short films from around the world.
Directed by Otis Dominique, whose music video credits include working with artists such as Jorja Smith, Giggs, and Kojey Radical, The Vision They Had stars dancers Samara Casteallo (Tina, Starlight Express), Jordan Crouch (The Greatest Dancer, White Christmas), Anu Ogunmefun (Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, Tina), Terique Jarrett (Find Me In Paris – Hulu/Cottonwood Media, Motown The Musical), and Tonye Scott-Obene (Wicked, Best Recent Graduate Award Winner 2020 (BBTA))
The Windrush Suite was commissioned in 2020 by Kathianne Hingwan from London’s The Vortex Jazz Club who secured funding from the PRS foundation and The Shape of Jazz to Come to present an online broadcast that honoured the Windrush generation for Windrush Day on 22 June. The Windrush Suite was subsequently offered a one-hour special on Jazz Fm hosted by Orphy Robinson MBE and was also played by Julian Joseph MBE on BBC3. The Windrush Suite EP was subsequently signed and released through Rudimental’s Label ‘Major Tom’s Records’, and went on to win the Ivor Novello Composers Award (jazz composition for small ensemble).
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Renell Shaw said, “These are literally my family’s stories – the beautiful part is that these stories resonate with so many Caribbean people in the UK, who have heard similar stories from family members over the years.’ The Windrush Suite’ is about love, injustice, adventure, triumph, loss and so much more. These are some of the things my Grandparents and my parents’ generation experienced; I wanted to express and honour their stories in a beautiful way.”
