Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Horace Ové grew up loving film after frequenting the cinema on a nearby US military base. Later, he became deeply influenced by Italian Realism.
He was one of the first black filmmakers to make his mark after he moved to England in 1960, directing his first film, a short documentary, in 1966. He went on to make a number of documentaries, one of which featured the Black American writer James Baldwin.
After numerous difficulties finding funds he directed his best known film, Pressure , in 1975. Co-written with Samuel Selvon, it centres on the life of a 16 year old black youth, Tony (played by Herbert Norville), and was shot mainly in Ladbroke Grove, West London. It was in many ways a ground-breaking film and influential on a future generation of black filmmakers, such as Isaac Julien and John Akomfrah.
Among his other fiction films was Playing Away (1986) a comedy depicting a black cricket team matched against a village team from deep in the English countryside. He was also an accomplished writer, photographer and painter whose work has been exhibited in many parts of the world.