Box of delight

In 1896, Thomas Edison produced The Kiss. One of the first films ever commercially screened, it adapts the then-popular musical The Widow Jones — or at least it adapts about twenty seconds of it, a kiss that happens in the very last scene. Two years later came the equally short but differently ground breaking Something Good – Negro Kiss, a version of The Kiss starring black actors instead of white ones. Only now, thanks in part to the efforts of University of Southern California archivist Dino Everett and University of Chicago Cinema and Media Studies professor Allyson Nadia Field, has it received proper recognition as the first such kiss on film.

"There aren't enough black female actresses securing leading roles in the UK, just look at your screens," says Mickey Shaw.
A recent drama school graduate, she is now trying to break into film.
Research from the British Film Institute (BFI) found that just 15 black actors had played more than two leading roles in the past decade.
"Those figures don't surprise me," the 22-year-old tells Newsbeat.