What's Killing Darcus Howe?

The True Stories strand, a showcase for the best international and domestic feature documentaries, presents What's Killing Darcus Howe?, which follows an extraordinary six months in the life of the legendary veteran firebrand Darcus Howe as he attempts to raise awareness of a disease which affects one in four black men.

Darcus decides to kick off his grass roots campaign with Mickey, the son of Leo - one of Darcus' friends who recently died of the disease. Can Darcus persuade Mickey to put aside his macho Essex-boy attitudes and take a test that could save his life? Despite being the most common male cancer, many men are reluctant to take prostate cancer seriously; perhaps the embarrassing and dreaded rectal examination is to blame?

Frustrated and angered that so many of his old friends are dying from what he calls 'the silent killer', Darcus is determined to rally against the authorities who he feels are letting black men down by failing to raise awareness. However, what starts as a campaign to put prostate cancer on the map, quickly turns into a bitter and at times explosive racial clash between Darcus and Asian director Krishnendu Majumdar - two very different generations with very different racial politics.

For four decades, Darcus Howe has been one of Britain's most prominent race campaigners dedicatedly fighting the authorities in the name of racial equality and, for him, prostate cancer is part of the bigger battle for racial equality. Krishnendu sees things differently. Meeting black men, he feels that their attitude is part of the problem and becomes determined to convince Darcus that black men need to take more responsibility for their own health.

This True Stories is followed by a retrospective of the documentary films of Darcus Howe, whose broadcasting career spans over 25 years.

Clips from Darcus Howe Project

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