Menelik Shabazz is a Barbados-born film director, producer, educator and writer, acknowledged as a pioneer in the development of independent Black British cinema, having been at the forefront of contemporary British filmmaking for more than 30 years. Shabazz is best known for the 1981 film Burning an Illusion his first feature. He was also co-founder in the 1980s of Kuumba film production company and Ceddo Film and Video Workshop, as well as being founding father of the BFM media project as the publisher of Black Filmmakers Magazine and creator of BFM International Film Festival.