When businesses fail to create an inclusive culture that promotes openness and tackles microaggressions especially around race, staff churn rates are high. A culture of openness is essential to ensure that People of Colour are safe, comfortable and able to bring their best selves to the workplace. To help create this culture and encourage meaningful conversation around the topic, BADLANDS, an independent film and cultural content studio, has created the anti-racism short film ‘All The Little Things’. 

‘All The Little Things’ is a film co-produced by BADLANDS and Great Guns, based on the real-life experiences of people working within the advertising and creative industry. It is the first piece of work created as part of the studio’s initiative RAW (Racism at Work) which is volunteer-led and aims to promote openness about race and mental wellness through storytelling.

The film was inspired by responses to an anonymous survey conducted by RAW in which participants were asked about their experiences of racism in the industry. The research found that 82% of respondents had experienced some form of racism during their career with 50% of people saying that these experiences had been perpetrated by mid to senior-level people. 

The film shows a young Black man’s day in the life at his job in the advertising industry while he navigates the immediate aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement. Audiences are shown some of the microaggressions and displays of racism that Black professionals have to face on a daily basis that can be detrimental to their mental health.

“The aim of RAW is to show how racism exists today in our industry, deal with our discomfort about race, and understand that regular racial microaggressions can affect our mental wellness, I think if we can start to address this then we'll begin to create safer work environments for people of colour employees,” explained Davina Rajoopillai, co-founder of BADLANDS and founder of R.A.W.

BADLANDS worked with a variety of creative partners to create the film and force an overdue dialogue about the racism faced within the industry. Written and directed by Meena Ayittey (represented globally by Great Guns), the film is based on an original idea from the creative team Christopher Medford and Bethany Jones, from independent creative company, Mother.

BADLANDS is encouraging all organisations to use the short film for free in internal DE&I training programmes, as well as to donate to an associated fundraiser which is raising money to provide therapy for PoC through The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network. 

To watch ‘All The Little Things’ film and find out more about R.A.W please click here.