Pride (movie) - when Welsh miners and gay activists teamed up to fight Thatcher

[dynamicbaddog]

Really excited about this film. I remember collecting money for the miners outside Heaven in '84 with LGSM. It's great that the role the group played in supporting the miners is being bought to a wider audience in this way.
Get your free tickets for a screening on the 9th September here
http://strongerunions.org/2014/08/15/pride-a-must-see-film-get-free-tickets-here/

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Looking forward to seeing this Shame we haven't a cineworld in Brighton!

e2a: we have a cineworld but it's not showing!

 

[William of Walworth]

We're getting offers of free tix from PCS, but none of the relevant showings/venues seem to apply to anywhere near us ... will check again properly tomorrow.

 

[marty21]

Will go to see this, I was living in Swansea during the miner's strike and collected money in a bucket outside the Quadrant shopping centre for the Student Union to give to the miners. Tbh, I don't remember the gay support for the strike, so this will be interesting to see.

 

[tufty79]

Might bob over to bradford for this - cheers for the heads up.

 

[gamerunknown]

Miners' strike was before I was around, but I thought this picture was quite iconic.

 

[ddraig]

trailer
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/.../Watch-Pride-trailer-starring-Bill-Nighy.html

e2a already linked

 

[Belushi]

I'll be going; it's all about my valley :thumbs :

 

[sojourner]

Yeh, really wanna see this - all free tix have well gone though!

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Ah, too slow for the free tickets. THe film looks good though.

 

[dynamicbaddog]

for those in London who missed out on the free tickets There's a preview and Q&A session on the 10th. not free but a fundraiser for survivors of the mining disaster in Soma. It's a small cinema apparently so book soon if you want to come.
http://thelexicinema.co.uk/2014/08/22/pride-fundraiser-preview-screening-plus-q-a/

 

[friendofdorothy]

Really excited about this film. I remember collecting money for the miners outside Heaven in '84 with LGSM. It's great that the role the group played in supporting the miners is being bought to a wider audience in this way.
Get your free tickets for a screening on the 9th September here
http://strongerunions.org/2014/08/15/pride-a-must-see-film-get-free-tickets-here/

I'm looking forward to this. I recall going to various 'Coal not Dole' benefits and I recall LGSM collecting regulary at the Fallen Angel (was that where they met or was it just a regular benefit night- I cant remember now.) Miners used to come to London - I recall them shaking buckets at rush hour in Oxford Circus, when Thatcher was busy destroying the North and most londoners had no idea or didn't care what was going on

I remember being reduced to tears by a welsh miners wife who spoke on the main stage at London Pride in Jubilee Gardens (in 1985?) she said something about having no idea what lesbians and gays were when they first contacted them - but how she would be proud if a child of hers come out to her as lesbian or gay. She was an ordinary woman from the valleys who had never given a speech before the strike - but she was eloquent and it was emotional message. Non of this sort of stuff made the mainstream media back then.

 

[editor]

This film looks ace. Even my Mum wants to see it!

 

[editor]

This is some review. I really want to see this now. Anyone know where it's showing in London?

You might assume a romcom about striking miners and 80s gays was unlikely to be big box-office, but the same was probably said of Billy Elliot. Pride looks likely to be a massive hit. It is wonderful. I've seen it twice, laughed repeatedly, wept at the end. You might wonder how, after the defeat of the miners, an upbeat ending could be legitimate, but this is one of the film's many achievements. It is directed with finesse and has a fabulous cast (including Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West). The story could easily have gone awry but never belly-flops into sentimentality – its feelgood factor is earned. It evokes the 80s uncannily. And what is most remarkable is that it does not trivialise the politics of the time.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/31/pride-film-gay-activists-miners-strike-interview

 

[editor]

Here's some ace archive footage:

 

[editor]

I've edited the thread title seeing as the free tickets have gone.

The more I read about this story the more amazing it is. Listen to this speech from a miner at 'Pits and Perverts ' fundraiser in London:

When he gave a speech at the Pits and Perverts benefit, his exact words were: "You have worn our badge, Coal Not Dole, and you know what harassment means, as we do. Now we will pin your badge on us, we will support you. It won't change overnight, but now 140,000 miners know that there are other causes and other problems. We know about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same."

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/31/pride-film-gay-activists-miners-strike-interview

Fantastic solidarity.

"LGSM members and miners dancing at the welfare hall in the Dulais Valley, Wales"

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Looks pretty feel good.

 

[friendofdorothy]

editor that was a real blast from the past! I recognised the bar at the London L &G centre (cowcross st) and the Fallen Angel, the banners and marches I even saw an old friend who I didn't even know was in Lesbians against Pit closures group.

Looks pretty feel good.

Then Thatcher squeezed the miners harder, and they lost. She closed our coal industry to prove a point aginst trade unions. Then she introduced clause 28. God the 80s were shit - but the music was good.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

editor that was a real blast from the past! I recognised the bar at the London L &G centre (cowcross st) and the Fallen Angel, the banners and marches I even saw an old friend who I didn't even know was in Lesbians against Pit closures group.



Then Thatcher squeezed the miners harder, and they lost. She closed our coal industry to prove a point aginst trade unions. Then she introduced clause 28. God the 80s were shit - but the music was good.

I was not being sarcastic, it looks like a great film. Even as a kid I followed the strike and hated Thatcher. I like the positive feel the trailer gives of the struggle of both oppressed groups coming together. I will prepare my heart to be warmed as new generations are hopefully educated.

 

[friendofdorothy]

I was not being sarcastic, it looks like a great film. Even as a kid I followed the strike and hated Thatcher. I like the positive feel the trailer gives of the struggle of both oppressed groups coming together. I will prepare my heart to be warmed as new generations are hopefully educated.

Sorry didn't think you were sarcastic - just felt like a rant against Thatcher, as I often do. It's hard to be nostagic about the 80s without recalling the oppression and misery. Sorry if I've spoilt the ending for anyone...

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Sorry didn't think you were sarcastic - just felt like a rant against Thatcher, as I often do. It's hard to be nostagic about the 80s without recalling the oppression and misery. Sorry if I've spoilt the ending for anyone...

You spoilt nothing, a rant against thatcher is never wasted.
Still love the music , still hate the down fall of modern Britain. Many positives came in the 80s though. If the consumerism negatives had not outweighed the good stuff, things might even be cool now.

 

[shygirl]

I've booked for the Q & A showing at the Lexi on 5 September, can't wait! Thanks for posting dynamicbaddog.

 

[The39thStep]

I'll be going; it's all about my valley :thumbs :

We have had this conversation before .i remember this so well.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I'll have a look to see if this is showing in Manchester.

 

[Belushi]

We have had this conversation before .i remember this so well.

:thumbs :

 

[treelover]

Sorry didn't think you were sarcastic - just felt like a rant against Thatcher, as I often do. It's hard to be nostagic about the 80s without recalling the oppression and misery. Sorry if I've spoilt the ending for anyone...

for people on benefits now, one can argue it is much much worse now

film looks great, even it it is just a microcosm of the times,

 

[lazythursday]

Thanks dynamicbaddog for posting this - managed to get tickets to the Bradford showing. The reviews of this are all 100% positive except for some nasty piece in the Telegraph (Brendon O'Neill - is he Spiked / RCP?). I remember the strike period vividly as a 12 year old living in a midlands coalfield where views were very polarised UDM/NUM and got involved in some LGSM work in the early 90s in a later wave of pit closures. The fact that we were welcomed onto marches etc in Newton-le-Willows with very few eyebrows raised bears testament to the hard work done by activists ten years earlier.

 

[ddraig]

for people on benefits now, one can argue it is much much worse now

film looks great, even it it is just a microcosm of the times,

be really really interested to see your argument on this

 

[ddraig]

bbc bit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-29036048

Christine Powell was treasurer of The Neath and District Miners Support Group, and recalls the first time LGSM visited Wales.

"Well we were nervous, not about them, but about ourselves. We didn't know anything about gay people, none of us had ever knowingly met one, and we were just desperate not to say or do anything which was going to offend them - especially after they'd been so kind and supportive to us.

"But from the first minute they had us in stitches, and we soon realised that we had far more things in common than there were which separated us.

"Before that I suppose we'd been quite prejudiced, through ignorance.

"One of the good things to come out of the strike was that it forced us to be less judgemental about things we didn't understand, and realise that there are friends everywhere if you're happy to accept them."

After its West End premiere, Pride has its Welsh release in Swansea on Thursday, and opens across the UK on 12 September.

 

[treelover]

"Mike Jackson, Co-founder of Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners LGSM at the premiere of the film 'Pride' - very proud that Mike is a member of Left Unity alongside many others from that important support campaign."