Burning an Illusion director and founder of Black Filmmaker Magazine died while working on a new film in Zimbabwe
Menelik Shabazz, the director and writer who blazed a trail for black film-makers in the
UK, has died. The news was confirmed to the Guardian by Shabazz’s daughter Nadia Denton, who said that the director died in Zimbabwe on Monday of diabetes-related complications. Shabazz was working on a new project, The Spirits Return, his first full-length fiction feature since his 1981 debut, Burning an Illusion.
In a statement his family said: “Menelik was a passionate film-maker and forged the way for many black film-makers … We have been touched by the tributes from those that knew him, worked with him and were inspired by his work.”