As the US race riots raged in the 1960’s, and influential leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X rose in the civil rights and Black Power movements, Britain had its own, controversial, figure of Black rights. The figure of Michael X, dubbed so after his public meeting with Malcolm, has since those heady days slipped into obscurity. Opinion is divided about this man, who was born in Trinidad and joined many of the Caribbean ‘Windrush’ generation in migrating to England. Whilst some believed him to be an inspirational focal point for a Black movement, others saw him as an opportunistic lowlife pimp and hustler always eager to improve his station. The film follows his life and times, from the increasingly open and multicultural Notting Hill area of London, to his gruesome end in his home country.  

From pimp to politician, from celebrity “guru” to vilified murderer, Michael X was Britain’s most notorious and flamboyant Black Power leader. This is a tale that spans the sixties and seventies – years of turbulent social change in Britain – which were as much about race as “flower power” and sexual liberation. Michael X is also an incursion into Trinidadian culture and history – a story of the legacy of slavery and white colonialism. It reveals a man whose childhood was beset by deep trauma concerning his identity in the in-between worlds of “black” and “white”. His is also a Caribbean legend: Michael’s story remains among Trinidad’s most sensational murders.