Black Jesus Film to Premiere in UK

|PIC1|The UK premiere of a movie focused on a 'black' Jesus seeing out the last 48-hours of his life will take place be Sunday 14 January, courtesy of the bfm Film Club.

Directed by Jean-Claude LaMarre, Colour of the Cross is one of the first films to depict Jesus as a black man and to suggest that the crucifixion could have been racially-motivated.

The cast includes Jean-Claude LaMarre (Malcolm X) and Debbi Morgan (Woman Thou Art Loosed).

Colour of the Cross will be shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, in London and is scheduled for a 5pm showing.

Another black Jesus movie, Son of Man, has premiered last year at the annual Sundance film festival in Utah, USA.

The South African film was directed by British native and current South Africa resident Mark Dornford-May.

The 90-minute film expresses the life and death of Christ from first century Palestine to a contemporary African state racked by war and poverty.

Besides the fact that Jesus is African, content in the film slightly differs from the original story of Jesus many are familiar with. For example, Mary conceives Christ during a militia attack on a grade school rather than Bethlehem in a manger. In a later scene in the film Jesus asks for the surrender of handguns from his apostles.