BFI Appoints Board-Level 'Anti-Racism Champions' After Mishandling Discrimination Complaint
Appearing before lawmakers on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, Hunt and BFI CEO Ben Roberts were asked about concerns raised by producer and researcher Faisal A. Qureshi, who has worked on series including Finding Neverland and Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.
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Deadline first revealed Qureshi's concerns in March 2023 and has continued to follow his story. Qureshi alleged he experienced discrimination during a March 2019 funding meeting with the BFI Network, a third-party BFI delivery organization. Qureshi said his complaint about the meeting was compounded by the BFI's response, which he felt was dismissive of his concerns.
He escalated his grievance to Verita, the complaints reviewer for National Lottery-funded organizations, which concluded in a report last year that the BFI's handling of the issue fell 'well short' of expected standards. Verita did not find evidence to support Qureshi's claims that he experienced racial discrimination during the 2019 meeting, though it was clear that the BFI made 'little effort' to collect information about his allegations. The BFI accepted Verita's conclusions and apologized to Qureshi.
Hunt told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee: 'Verita reported that there was no evidence of racism in the way that that was handled, [which] I think is significant. It was not a well-handled complaint, and we have discussed that at board level. As a consequence of that, the complaint system at the BFI has been reviewed, there's been additional training for key individuals, and we are watching that very carefully.'
Hunt, who also serves as Apple TV+'s boss in Europe, added that she had appointed 'two anti-racism champions to sit on the board to ensure that the strategy continues to be something of focus.' She did not disclose the identity of the BFI governors overseeing the issue.
She added that the anti-racism training undertaken by BFI employees was 'second to none' in the industry. 'I don't think it's a small thing that the organization has taken that as seriously as it has,' Hunt said.
The BFI chair continued: 'There will always be people who are disappointed that an organization has been unable to support them creatively. That will always happen. It doesn't necessarily mean the choices that have been made are incorrect.'
This echoed the sentiments of BFI chief Roberts, who told MPs that the movie body is 'mostly in the business of turning down filmmakers' and that creates a lot of 'unhappiness.' He added that the BFI has diversity 'baked into' its principles and is exceeding targets in supporting Black and global majority filmmakers.
Qureshi told Deadline that he was 'disappointed' that the BFI continued to paint him as a 'disaffected rejected applicant' when he did not apply for funding. He added: 'I don't have an issue with being rejected for any application as long as it is conducted fairly and transparently.'
On the lack of evidence about racism, Qureshi pointed to the Verita report, which he said made clear that the BFI 'didn't collect the evidence as soon as they learned about the complaint.' Indeed, Verita's report disclosed an internal email from a BFI Network employee in which Qureshi's discrimination claims were dismissed as 'crazy.'
Qureshi, who has not accepted an apology from the BFI, said: 'They were disingenuous in their remarks and were implying stuff about myself and my character that was untrue. I was very disappointed by their performance.'
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