pants with taylor suits, and evening gowns became a blueprint for other designers, a combination of luxury and st. we're also attracted a new and younger market. ablow was born in the us state of illinois to immigrant parents from gonna. his mother, a seamstress taught him to. so, and even though he did and how formal fashion training, he understood the industry and the role that plays in modern culture. for more than 2 years, the founder of the label off white had been suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. despite his illness, he kept active. earlier this month, he traveled took a tours capital for his 1st museum exhibit in the middle east titled figures of speech. he leaves a legacy that influence fashion and managed to inspire the world of art and culture . virgil ablow was 41. 0,

this is al jazeera. these are the headlines. japan is banning foreigners from answering the country after the discovery of the you only cron variance are minister for me. ok, she does says although measures are also being considered, tony chang is following developments from bangkok, borders and are close to foreign business people and foreign students, many of whom were celebrating after being allowed back into the country several weeks ago. for some japanese nationals will be able to return, but quarantine protocols are going to be introduced once again. so japan really stepping back very quickly. the that did cause a dip in the markets across asia this morning, although they appeared now to have studded cases have no been phones. and more than 10 countries and a number of out is travel restrictions all foreigners and i borrowed from entering israel for 2 weeks. and morocco has halted all incoming flights in honduras,

the left wing candidates, jamara, castro has claimed victory in sunday's presidential election. castro says that voters have reversed authoritarianism. her supporters took to the streets to celebrate her historic when a governing national party has also announced that it's candidates at one the trial of george's former president's michel, circus. billy is set to resume in the capital to please see. he says, corruption charges against him are politically motivated. he faces 6 years in prison, if convicted with us are the headlines. the stay with us here in al jazeera, she to be unscripted is coming up next fall. unless any cattle will host the middle east. first. well, in preparation, the country is a major. think the nation's going head to head in think pub, this bill?

stadiums. 2020 lucky view across the action. as council prepares, the regions biggest ever sports events that be for our come on out there. ah, in those early days it was a real battle to do something other than what i was supposed to do. because i was a fear as a faith that rock music ship have. my name is skim m m, the lead singer and saw i saw a multi 1000000 selling british rock band scan canarsie. but i'm also at the d. j as one of the few black women in the rock industry, i passionately believe that music is a force that can break down barriers and move beyond stereotypes about race and gender. the biggest surprise, even after 30 years of filmmaking, is people's expectations of what you can actually do. yes,

that's what they feel you can do. i'm going to chatter. i'm a writer, director, producer, the wide or mac cameras. lovely with the clouds. i have spent my career making films about people that looked like me who are under representative on the screens and often on the margins of our industry jobs hooked up with the whole reason i came into making films was because i wanted to challenge the fact that we were absent from the screen and therefore absent from history for me, writing about politics or writing about teams can things really was just writing about my perfect spirit. we are the recorders of our voices as people, the diaspora. and because they're there, they can't be taken away. ah. so you have said that music has no boundaries of the sea. you were

a bit of an anomaly or at that time, no one could put you in a, in a category. you would be jazzy, you would be ballads, you would be punky, you'd be natalie, you'd be everything. right. and did you find that you able to channel some of your political so the anger into easy, i mean, you know, for me the way i will talk about music and politics and why we do one about why some of our songs of list goes. because for me, the most effective political sofa come from pers experienced like i saw a little tiny foster car, half way a pool. and in my head i'm my little baby forced to go on the wall. and that was our very 1st little single because the question is, who put little babies for school? it looks like it was the 1st one could be more than 4 years old. and in that way i, i talked about the rise of fascism and the rise of white supremacy at that time. i and some of those,

those issues i'd grown up with because in bricks and they would come down the bars . that's right. the black people up where they could see them. yeah, i'm in there been a whole big fight in the middle of the street. yeah, i'm and so it, it came from matt and for me writing about politics or writing about political things really was just writing about my past experience for the 1st one of the things i'm really interested about is if you've done some hugely popular movies and at the same time, the method of your work, it remains strong and prevalent in everything that you do. i mean, how have you managed to stay radical in the mainstream? just by being a director. yeah. in our business is a radicals things, but it will present for me, prisoner and whenever i write to film and then try and get it made. if the lead as a person of color, it was a struggle. yeah, it would be much easier for me. it's my, it feels my white people. yeah. but of course that's not what i'm going to do because the whole reason i came into making films was because i wanted to challenge

the fact that we were absent from the screen and therefore absent from history. so many ways now i feel that the films i've made of love that years have been a recording of our life and our presence in britain. and so my 1st film i'm british part, that really was just me wanting to express the fact that, you know, we come from a long history in a long relationship with britain. it's not just our parents coming off the boat as it were, with their whole colonial realty. i'm higher. exactly. and then with banjo on the beach, i made a decision that i wanted to make commercial films. i didn't want to my art house films because i felt our house there was only gonna be seen by academics and yeah. and certain people who are all in the same circle. yeah. and i wanted to create films that would be seen by everybody, because i wanted to show our stories basically. and so with barge on the beach,

i've decided tackle black in asia. chris h, it ships away, which is to be at the time. and i can only imagine her arguments are full for, for you to get those movie made and get those topics. keep us up exam, get water down. yeah. i mean even that delay back home in am i missing so much? is such a struggle to get made 3 years and yeah, people just didn't believe that it was commercial that anyone beyond other indians who might like football, would be interested in it. but as a keep saying that phil is not about football. yeah, that is a film about racism and what the father went through and how he's trying to protect his daughter from racism. whereas the daughter saying, you know, well i got to go out and fight it myself and do my own stuff. you know, i think sometimes the story that gets told is how hard it is and how unsupported by

parents, but at the same time as low as it gets incredibly supported. yeah, well that, and to my dad, beth, yeah. my parents, my mom was just obsessed with me, letting us get indian food throughout my childhood, but i was my dad and in some ways that was me. but what was important about that film was the fact that it was a seek family. yeah. and the film came out just after 911 and it, i think, i really do believe that it, you know, it did a lot in terms of race relations. certainly in britain, i remember before the film was a hit. i was a screening in manchester and i'd gone up to introduce the film and it was a really interesting audience because his weren't that many asians there. but the people were there, i know to some of families who bought their own crisps thing is people pool. right . and anyway, they also went to the film and then after a people smiling at me and then this one women,

i'll never forget her english women. she came up 3, she was wearing white shirt and white letters and she said to me, you think you made a comedy, haven't you? and i said, well, i try and use humor either. but she said, you, what you've done, what you've done for people around here, is previous, they just have the older riots where they've been completed for atlanta community, an english community. and they've been at loggerheads there. and she said, what your film taught us is that everyone wants the best for their kids. exactly. does it matter who you are? yeah, ever was supposed the kids that woman has stayed with me because in a way that is what i was trying to do. you know, with, with my film like just the, well, if i never make another film again, you done, you don't, i, i did get want to make you feel that was a very hard feel for me to make and it was cool, my choice house. and it was about the partition of india. yeah. so i want to move

a bit away from england, which is, i mean, people really don't know a lot about bio why it was done and how it was done. yeah, 9047 was independence and then partition was happening. 47, it basically britain before britain left divided india and created pakistan. and in my film i put for the theory as to why that happened. it was to do with the beginning of the cold war and american and british interests. the film was quite a tragic film because it was about refugees. and what happened to my ancestors and my grandparents and making it as a british person was also interesting because it is a british film and i did have them out battens as well. and most of the film was about partition made in india, you know, are very violent and very angry. yeah. rightly so. you know, but being british filmmaker i had to take it and it was different. yeah. energy. her different and also i think the other thing is being a mother as well,

by that point i've had my children so that maternal thing came in where i just felt like enough already enough hatred and pain and division. and so i try to make a very healing film in film and music and writing all the creatives. the point is to try and get to be better. and i mean, sometimes you have to highlight that in ways that make people feel very, very uncomfortable. and certainly within some of the songs i've done that kind of swear, you know, it's because it's like, yeah, this is, you know, this is our reality and in some of our magazines so that people can try to understand how it, from our perspective. yeah. i think in terms of being radical in terms of making it mainstream, you know, is focused on hookey little bit populous to it. yeah. when you're kind of in the preaching to the converted watch here on the ones that you're trying to reach, you know, trying to reach a broader spectrum of people. so you can actually the songs and if matters can get out there and can have a really strong effect. it just when people feel uncomfortable,

they call it radical. they say like black women, they think we're aggressive because we have a strong point of view or because we tend to stand marin demand off space there as she stand by the fact that i don't think any of complementary thoughts about radical are very extreme. some of them are cry for help and some of the kind of like look what's going on, what's all you, can you not see? we're trying to find a different way to express something that has been expressed since bob dylan, you know, so yeah. marvin gaye, you know, yeah, public enemy, there's so many bad. so many artists that have written things in political ways. how do you touch people? and i think again, it's just to find a unique in a personal way to talk about actually my last film. blinded by the lights were based on a memoir by suffering, missouri who grew up in the island just sort of 25 miles after looted an industrial town and it's based around job. it's a kid who's feeling really kind of see in luton with his parents,

with the national from. and so many people come up to me and said how much they cried through that film because it's will express is something that you can't put down. express is all reality because it's so few people to do that in the, in our industries and in the world of art, if you like, you know, when you see it there and people respond to it is very, is an emotional experience. i think the one thing about bruce springsteen, he's wonderful translate of emotions. yes, i find may. he's the difference between me or restrictive if that is how we translator. well, i remember when i showed him the film i was very nervous. but at the end of the film, he came out when he gave me a big hug and a kiss. and he said, thank you for looking after me so beautifully. so i was kind of nice here. we ultimate thing really is that when we were doing it, when we were creating,

we were struggling and we were angry with like, why can't we does, why can't we? where's our space now to have our space? yeah. yeah. but a lot of energy doing that. but now looking back and seeing the work and like you writing the book, you know, i have this tremendous sense of achievement because at she, we did, we were subversive. we made in road and was, and still it was. the thing is, is to just acknowledge for a minute that we are the recorders of our voices as but as people, the diaspora and, and, and because they're there, they can't be taken away. exactly. i mean, in those early days when i'm, i'm, you know, i'm the skinny black go leasing on a rock brand. and it was looking at me like really, really because what i think what music is, is based off antiquity b reeves got be true, is what we call i'm so i in those bay people would look at me think,

well it can't be authentic, it can't be real because this isn't the face of rock music that we want to have. so it's like a big boulder and you're like handing me your boulder rate is for me to carry. no, my i to of i don't know. you get that back? yes, exactly. you remember, my shoes are liam in clear. you know, i don't know how either have to carry the way of your races. yes, that's so true. if i finally got to this plan of joy and happiness, you know, 26 years old is quite late. really trying to record label i'm. i was really happy. i'm fun. i'm funny. not mean a backup singer is what i was coming, pushed into. i'm and i that was my approach to it. and i will say this when i work with kids, i would say, just don't take you on into your own here. it. yes. and the book mom i was writing the was, i was pitching a young go like a young version of myself. what she want to be totally in the book is all about you know, the lessons, i've learned the things i've, i've been told and that was one of the major things i wanted to face it to kids.

now it was like, you know, you're fine. they have the problem, i don't carry other people's wait a minute, you get way down, you stop what you're doing and maybe one exactly. my point of that where i learned that was in 2002. yeah. and bend it, like beckham, came out in america and the new york times described the film was that this isn't the authentic voice of living in britain today. if that's because they, the idea they have of asians in, you know, he's not playing football. how would he have the goal as a new yorker blue talk about a sailor to an asian woman. he made a film about our upbringing. i mean, i talk about it because i think he's probably quite mortified yet. he wrote her quite mod for the i repeat it quite a lot. yeah. but that was a real turning point for me is i slowly thought, wow, you can't win. don't try and win. don't try and be on their level. yeah. be on your

own level to and, and can on, don't take it on and therefore i think in what we create is really about ourselves . i mean, i think the simple, most difficult thing that's happening now is that we don't, we grew up in an environment where we didn't, you didn't have to read those was do you picked up newspaper, social media, you cannot get away from people's opinion. yes, it's just in your face punch in your face. non stop. no wonder if we could have having so much difficulty from any mental issues dealing with this on to raj of negativity, people's negative. how can you carry that way? i mean, i would just be like asked if i could, i could just leave the room when you come to me with your nonsense. we need to increase our rooms in your pocket. yeah. and you harriet like a nic and wait with you where you are. so sir, is meditation fiances when 5 minutes a day, just meditating about your own strengths, who you are, what your purposes in life,

what you're here to do, what you're here to cray, who you love, who loves you, do just the fat people, and then everything else any haters out there, you know, i find down the toilet. i, i'm also strong believe in just not reading it because, i mean, i don't even know we've been in the business for long time. yeah. yes. you are. you still have quite a famous game for things you do like easier now do you think bigger things seem to be more diverse? you know, do you think is easier to make your fills? you know, as it is just that. so i think it's just harder to speak. that's why they're not in a corrupt you sound. we're not making a film because your black asian writer. yeah, sure. our audience was going to like it. yeah, it'll just be yeah, it will just be more unique. can we think about some different cost killing? yes. can you mean add another story as a way in for the audience? it'll just be different words talking of the audience?

few i did there. i think i think it's a question. time again. yes. hi. hi, my name is natasha. my question is it for grinda? i was wondering, do you write your characters and stories with complete freedom or do you feel maybe unfairly that they come to be represent tips and in that sense carry the burden of portraying south asian communities positively like defending the cultures or breaking stereotypes, the audiences and how to cope with if you, if you do feel it. well, i think early on. yeah. i think i did feel what we call the burden of representation. but you just have to be authentic, i think. but as the years go past, you realize there are, as in as a writer in as a director, there are films that you want to make in their films that you don't, you know, i don't necessarily like how uncertain tv station in england lives always stories about you know how i was killed by my father on my

brother type dramas, because, you know, they're so reductionist, i think, you know, so what i try and do is counteract what's already out there. that's not to say, don't hide from serious issues, but try and create 3 dimensional characters who are dealing with stuff. but i trying do it from a way that doesn't make us the victim. and i think that's the problem when you're working in a world in an industry that has so many ideas of who we are and what we represent, i e, backwards um, no educated or whatever my job is always to join a redress that. but what i also try and do is create characters that, that my own community can recognize and feel as authentic, but also are universal because, you know, film is seen by everybody around the world. you know, so it's important for me that you know that you find that thing that makes us

universal as well as specific hello my name is learning, gosh, i'm north africa. so my question is i, i youngest you them, when in your begin is in your career, who was there person? would you look up to and you got this by? well, so i saw. yeah, i think the person, his voice, i think meant so much to me in her writing. was there maya angelou mean christ, the bravery and the poetry, but this amazing ability to deal with all the crosses she had to bear and come out, shining to me. she remains a huge influence for me. the 1st so could i have bore as she was in nina simone record. and i took it home and i was allowed to listen to it for a few few months because the local play was in

a nice room of the house. and my mom is to lock, you know, the good room. i remember i sat them, i played it 10 times in a row. and then i followed minas one's career for my whole life and i she ended up meeting her and now some a little safety birthday party. we sang happy birthday tests. i don't the thing down i'm in the hotel bar off to with on is hung out with. i will not. and i remember center, you know, you, the 1st could i have bull and, you know, just in terms of has a math is the voice. she didn't start thinking she was 19 years old because she was trained to the classical pianists and she couldn't get into the classical classical school that you want to get into. so she end up singing in balls and you know, and she and the late twenty's can vary for school, what some incredibly poignant political songs. i'm as an assay, she's the artist i keep going back to because there's always something more there i'm. so for me, i would say that's probably the artist as most inspired me. hello. hi,

my name is lindy where, so i really, really wanted to just hear your thoughts on what can be done to achieve a greater depth of anti racist colonial work in educational spaces. you know, all the way from early years through to university. i mean, i would say 1st and foremost to not put up with it. you know, i think that live before but my mother even with just the recent thing, there was a culture of like, oh, we'll just do with this. would just let this one go. and then the next one will try and slowly, slowly and i think now for us to fix it, things that we can do is just shut it down if we see race is behavioral, we want to have a conversation about that to actually expose it and to talk about it, i don't think necessarily we used we need to weapon isaiah. i don't think we need to do, you know, have a thing of destroying people and counseling people. i just think that it's good to

highlight it, deal with it, put it forward, make it in front of the conversation. so people can understand what's wrong because sometimes people don't really get it straight away. and there's a lot of un conditioning that has to happen. so i think to do it in a lot like a productive positive loving way. but i think you need this the so much the rise of a racism, fascism and why scripts is going up and up and up. i'm and i think is not the time to kind of almost, you know, tap around and do delicately. i think, you know, it's time we need to spot and shut it down. and so that people can see about something's going to happen. and it makes people kind of think twice before they say, are they act, they do certain things. but i do think it as a study has to be in an open conversation a positive way. not just like jumping and pouncing something that was very aggressive way because sometimes people just make mistakes or they just don't understand or they're just not there. and in addition to was get is saying in terms

of the teaching, i think it's up to educators now to start using the materials that are properly representative of the subjects that you're teaching. and i think that in terms of film, there are so many wonderful films that we're going back, revisiting lot battle of algiers for example. either way you go back, can you talk about the issues raised in the film and how person that they are, for example, today, and what's going on in france to day. so i think the film to feel made by filmmakers from different backgrounds about their own history is also a great way to combat prejudice and racism. or if you have been the most wonderful, incredible experience so taught you the money to scan has just been wonderful. i'm, i'm sad, we haven't met in the past, but it's been wonderful to share all these experiences, upbringings and,

and time in london a year that we went miles apart from each other. exactly. so interesting to hear that will help you with, with so connected by a time in a period is like from your memories or music that you've talked about. yeah, some of your influences, i remember bacteria that was this, this time. so i'm going to go on sing now in a recording studio from quite inspired for excellence. have the feeling of this moment that we've been able to talk through in recall from a timer generation. when what mattered in art was to be radical. today. what the hell does radical me arctic are being used to make cause satisfaction. often the brochure war, our society for the rich and the powerful picasso in his late life said something wonderful painting is not declaration for your living room. painting is,

oh, from the al jazeera london, bro consented to people in thoughtful conversation. large cannot be erased by the superpower with no host and no limitation. what mattered in all to was to be radical. how can the thing that's radical for say, part one of highway and denise, your pool is not about wanting to sell. you know about the message in the studio b, unscripted, on alex's era, is done with

african stories of resilience and carrying a lot of us is one of them, traditions and dedication to live without a short documentary by african filmmakers on the white 9. and the bookmaking africa direct on al jazeera, a lot of the stories that we cover heidi complex, so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can as al jazeera

correspondence. that's what we strive to do. ah, this is al jazeera ah hello there, i'm to thought, hey, this is the news, our line from our headquarters here and are coming up in the next 60 minutes. japan becomes the latest country to band foreign visitors and responds to the new cove at 19 variance. it's more video video mold symptoms. while the doctor who fast detected the army from variance has patients have suffered only mile symptoms so fall. after more than a year.