Ep. 68 - BLITZ - Challenging Perceptions of Time, Place, Race and Identity
Newcomer Elliott Heffernan as George in BLITZ, written and directed by Steve McQueen. Photo credit: Apple TV+
Episode 68 explores themes of time, place, race and identity in the 2024 film BLITZ a World War II story told from the unique perspective and journey of its protagonist, a 9-year-old biracial boy named George (played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan). BLITZ is written and directed by Academy and BAFTA Award- winning filmmaker Steve McQueen.
Imperial War Museum (1940)
Steve McQueen says the inspiration for BLITZ came from both his experience as an official war artist during the Iraq war, and an archival photograph in the U.K.’s Imperial War Museum of a Black boy evacuating with other English children during World War II.
What we also see in the film is while George navigates the chaos of the blitz to reunite with his mother, he’s also moving towards another destination: how he sees himself in the world. While realizing his true grit, George also encounters the racial hostilities that his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), and his grandfather (Paul Weller), who are white, have protected him from until this moment.
Joining us for the conversation is Tré Ventour-Griffiths, a multiply disabled historian, creative writer and sociologist from the Northamptonshire county in the U.K.
Time and Relativity in BLITZ
Black rural and town peoples in the UK
History of Racial Hostilities in UK, Social, Economic and Sexual Policing
…and more
Guest: Tré Ventour-Griffiths
Photo credit: Kelly Cooper Photography
Tré Ventour-Griffiths is a multiply-disabled historian, creative writer, and sociologist with interests in Black histories, race and disability, pop culture and insurgent politics. His PhD research uses creative storytelling methods to consider a multigenerational story of Caribbean Northants Post-1942. Tré’s works in popular culture looks at representation, identity, and political commentaries in the history, writing, and development of popular entertainment namely comics, film, and TV. At the moment, he is using Marvel media to develop new theories around microaggressions and other forms of social harm. Tré has written and presented on work including Regency romance, Barbie, Peaky Blinders, superhero films, and Disney Princesses.
Connect with Tré Ventour-Griffiths: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | Website
Special Thank You to Chamion Caballero, Director of the Mixed Museum for recommending our guest for this conversation. Read the online museum’s webpage about BLITZ.
SHOP THE PODCAST in our online affiliate bookstore
BLITZ
Written and directed by Academy Award and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, BLITZ follows a 9-year-old biracial boy named George (Elliott Heffernan) on his epic journey in World War II London after his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan), sends him to safety in the English countryside as part of “Operation Pied Piper,” a government plan to evacuate citizens, especially children, from London and other cities and towns, which were the targets of Nazi Germany air bombing raids known as “the blitz” (from the German word Blitzkrieg or ”lightning war”). The blitz lasted from September 1940 to May 1941.
But George doesn’t want to go to the countryside and be separated from his mother and grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller). Defiant and determined George makes his escape to return home to East London. As George embarks on this adventure, he finds himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.
Along with Ronan, Heffernan and Weller, BLITZ the last also includes Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Weller, Stephen Graham, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Alex Jennings, Joshua McGuire, Devin McKenzie Smith* (Ken “Snakehips” Johnson) Hayley Squires, Erin Kellyman and Sally Messham.
*portrays a real-life figure
BLITZ is available on Apple TV+
