Matthew Warch: why I ma a rom about gay activists and strikg mers | Pri | The Guardian

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

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. "The story had bee a legend the gay muny. 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.

It is really illogil to say, 'I'm gay and I'm to fendg the gay muny but I don't re about anythg else…'. "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.

She explas how the gay muny ted the mg muny: "Their stggle is siar to our own. 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

"We need a character who, like the dience, arriv bewilred at a Gay Pri march. Now his ey she as he remembers the Welsh mers who me to London to march wh Gay Pri June 1985.

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. Our first sightg of him is wh fox fur and whistle outsi Gay's the Word book shop. "Wh the South Wal mers at the 1985 Labour party nference, we put gay rights on the agenda.

Tim were tougher for lbians and gay men then. We were well ed to homophobia.

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

But the nsens was: we have been monised by the prs, maybe we should meet the gay people bee they've also been monised. " It was not long before Welsh mers warmed to their e: "They started wearg gay badg on their lapels. "Mike marvels at how tim have changed for homosexuals the metropolan first world: "It is unbelievable, we have ma such progrs.

Until I was 13, homosexualy was a crime – like makg beg black a crime. Nowadays, is unol for straight men to be disparagg about gay men.

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? He says: "Gog to a gay club London was fely somethg I'd never envisaged dog. We know about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same.

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

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. Blake, an actor om London, was part of an unlikely missn: A small group of gays and lbians were on their way to liver money and food they had llected for a town of mers who were on strike to fight p closgs proposed by Prime Mister Margaret Thatcher.

Blake and his iends had no ia whether their donatns would be met wh gratu, homophobia or distst of all thgs London their first meetg wh the mers. Among s real-life characters are gay activists like Mr. Blake, who is played by Domic Wt (“The Wire”), as well as several mers and their wiv, portrayed by the lik of Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”) and the Osr nomee Imelda Stnton (“Vera Drake”) the yearlong strike by the Natnal Unn of Meworkers is still wily remembered Bra, as both a high pot of Thatcherism and the begng of the end of the untry’s tra unn movement, neher the creators of “Pri” nor s leadg actors were aware of the helpg hand om the gay aln back then, they said recent terviews.

Warch — bt known as a theater director for the hs “Matilda the Mil” and “God of Carnage” — also sought to avoid easy lghs om the strange-bedfellows plot, for stance, by askg the actors to drop their enargly nervo grs the scene where the gay activists arrive at the mers’ rult is a film that tak a light touch to s eply polil and heart-tuggg ntent, stead offerg a closely observed character study that by s tears hontly.

Berford, who was 10 years old when the mers’ strike began, said the spiratn for “Pri” me the mid-1990s, when he was havg an argument wh an olr boyiend about whether gays were a polil force. “He told me about the donatns, and also about how the Welsh al mers me to the aid of gay people later on, ” Mr.

The story shook me out of the view that the only people who stand up for gay people are other gay people. ”He thought would make a great film that uld have mastream appeal, given that the movie is as much as about the straight mers as the gay activists.

But movi wh sympathetic gay central characters were equent the ’90s, and, as an aspirg actor and wrer his early 20s, he had no clout or nnectns. Berford’s first feature, yet he had no clear ia how to wre GordonHe did know about a rough documentary about the group, Lbians and Gays Support the Mers, but that film did not intify s terview subjects and only listed a few nam the creds. Berford then met Mike Jackson, one of the early lears of the group, who had an archive’s worth of anecdot and Jackson, a garner who is now 60, said he beme “a b of the keeper of the flame” the years after the strike, as wrers for rad and theater sought him out for possible projects about the gays and the mers.