Brish Coalmers Strike Wh A Gay Coaln In 'Pri,' A Crowd-Pleaser : NPR

Contents:

• WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
• PRI REVIEW – WHEN GAY ACTIVISTS STCK A AL WH MERS
• MATTHEW WARCH: WHY I MA A ROM ABOUT GAY ACTIVISTS AND STRIKG MERS
• GAY MUNY'S BACKG FOR MERS' STRIKE MA TO FILM
• COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'
• BRISH COALMERS STRIKE WH A GAY COALN IN 'PRI,' A CROWD-PLEASER
• PRI: A HEARTBREAKG BRISH COMEDY ABOUT THE TIME GAYS AND MERS WORKED TOGETHER
• CANN 2014 REVIEW: PRI - BILLY ELLT NTUED WH ROG GAY RIGHTS ROMANCE SET DURG MERS' STRIKE

WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI

" He acknowledg now that this is a le you n only e once a pch and explas that he went on to tell the story of mers the Dulais valley South Wal durg the 1984-5 strike – the longt Brish history – and a gay and lbian group om London that donated more money (£11, 000 by December 1984) to their e than any other fundraiser the UK, along wh a mib emblazoned wh the logo LGSM: Lbians and Gays Support the a when a gree of homophobia was the norm, LGSM drove a uple of mib om Hackney Communy Transport and a clapped-out VW mper van to a bleak mg town South Wal to prent their donatns, uncerta what sort of wele to expect.

Three years later and the film, shot Banwen, Wal, and London, and directed by Tony-wng Matthew Warch (rponsible for Matilda the Mil, and soon to be artistic director of the Old Vic), is might assume a rom about strikg mers and 80s gays was unlikely to be big box-office, but the same was probably said of Billy Ellt. "In the homema LGSM documentary, we also glimpse a tall, handsome fellow wearg groovy leather troers, shakg a donatns bucket outsi Gay's the Word bookshop London's Marchmont Street – this is Jonathan Blake. Cliff, an olr mer ( the film, a killgly funny and affectg Bill Nighy) appears the documentary sayg: "The lbians and gays have been super duper.

PRI REVIEW – WHEN GAY ACTIVISTS STCK A AL WH MERS

One hope is that the film might revive polil tert bee the activism of the left has been siled, the tra unns are weak, gay rights issu aren't there.

MATTHEW WARCH: WHY I MA A ROM ABOUT GAY ACTIVISTS AND STRIKG MERS

"Mike marvels at how tim have changed for homosexuals the metropolan first world: "It is unbelievable, we have ma such progrs.

GAY MUNY'S BACKG FOR MERS' STRIKE MA TO FILM

And when he has to make a speech a gay bar wh a clientele whose look is more S&M than M&S, you fear for him – how is all gog to pan out?

Twenty-seven gay people ( the film is a dozen) slept on his floor – the morng, his six-year-old dghter "uldn't put her foot down". We knew gay people existed – my dad worked wh a mer who was gay – but nobody openly talked about ; was nsired very personal.

Gay activists work to help mers durg their lengthy strike of the Natnal Unn of Meworkers the summer of productn, box office & pany Vios56More like thisReview There is nothg not wonrful about this you don't lgh, don't shed a tear, or don't want to get up and cheer at the end, then you weren't payg attentn durg this movie.

COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'

There is a phoric fiance this impassned and lovable film, which premiered at Cann earlier this year, based on the te story of pneerg gay mpaigners London who supported the strikg mers 1984, and so dog had to overe tribal spicns among both London’s gay muny and the mers of south Wal. Warch’s film mak the se that the strike was not simply a Light-Briga charge to oblivn but a triumphant spur to gay rights and human rights, self-rpect and Schzer giv a gutsy performance as Mark Ashton, the mpaigner who cis to break out of what he se as the parochialism of gay polics and support the mers. He fac spicn om those who see mers as a macho tribe who wouldn’t lift a fger to help gay rais some sh and fds a sympathetic Welsh mg lear to accept : a dignified and telligent performance om Paddy Conside as Dai.

At London’s Gay Pri March on 30 June, leftie activist Mark Ashton (played by Ben Schzer) argu that lbian and gay people should support the mers – for both groups are opprsed by the ernment and the tabloid prs.

BRISH COALMERS STRIKE WH A GAY COALN IN 'PRI,' A CROWD-PLEASER

”ActivismMark don’t get a lot of support immediately: a gay man om Durham rponds angrily that the mers ed to beat him up back home. It do, however, make accurate nods to the historil ntext, quotg the notor words of Manchter chief nstable Jam Anrton scribg gay men “swirlg about a human csp of their own makg”, and showg the Department of Health’s Don’t Die of Ignorance mercial. It tells the te story of a group of gays and lbians London who ci to raise money for strikg mers on the grounds that they have the same enemi: the Thatcher ernment, the police and the tabloids.

PRI: A HEARTBREAKG BRISH COMEDY ABOUT THE TIME GAYS AND MERS WORKED TOGETHER

They name themselv LGSM (Lbians and Gays Support the Mers) and, unable to get their early donatns accepted by the mers' unn, set off an old mib to a remote village Wal to hand over the money person. In a largely unknown aspect of the 1984-5 Mers’ strike, gay activists om London gave much need help to an embattled South Wal muny.

Arguably many such gay dramas have largely foced on the stggle of the dividual, isolatn om the labour movement, echog the great stris sexual equaly that have occurred sce the 70s (acpanied by a rise e equaly).

CANN 2014 REVIEW: PRI - BILLY ELLT NTUED WH ROG GAY RIGHTS ROMANCE SET DURG MERS' STRIKE

Their support for the strike prompted the Natnal Unn of Mers to mpaign for the rights of gay people and mand that sexual equaly be clud the program of the Labour Party. The real protagonists were surprised by the film’s mercial succs: 30 years later, a tearjerker about the class stggle beme an ternatnal blockbter, while tellg the te story of Lbians and Gays Support the Mers.

“Milant”, the group to which I belonged at the time, nsired gay rights a bourgeois ncern and imaged that the workers would not be able to handle . Ever sce then, I do not accept the ia that workers are particularly homophobic – even though sometim they say thgs more bluntly. We jt started llectg money om the pri march or gay pubs, and the most we were expectg was a thank you letter om the village we supported.

We were still personal ntact wh the people Wal – but the memory of the 80s solidary movements, even left and gay circl, fad wh time.

The funnit reactns me om the mastream gays: Bee the movie was so succsful, they had to pretend that they hadn’t spised all along.

Your story has also spired a new anizatn, Lbians and Gays Support the Migrants, which not only llects money for migrant projects but has also ma a name for self wh darg actns, cludg the blocka of an airplane on which refuge were beg ported. It still puzzl me that exploative pani n march pri paras and prent themselv as gay-iendly while treatg their workers, cludg their LGBT staff, atrocly. On the eveng of March 28, 2017, 15 activists cludg Lbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSM) cut a hole the fence surroundg London’s Standsted Airport.