IS IT REALLY A MYSTERY why Black Audio Film Collective have had to wait nearly ten years since their dissolution for their first retrospective? Founded in London in 1982, the group operated in a context far removed from Britain’s burgeoning fascination with Turner Prizes and blockbuster YBA shows. Rather, their formation took place against the background of the country’s tumultuous 1970s: a period of postindustrial recession and increasing racial and class division during which violent unrest was both cause and consequence of policing tactics seen by urban groups—and by African-Caribbean and