Movie Review: 'Pri' | Coal Mers And Gay Activists Partner In 'Pri' : NPR

Contents:

• WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
• COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'
• PRI AND JOY: GAY ACTIVISM AND BRISH FILM
• PRI AND THE PS: WHEN GAY RIGHTS MET THE STRIKG MERS
• 10 SENTIAL MOVI ABOUT GAY RIGHTS
• PRI: WATCH GEE MACKAY AN EXCLIVE CLIP OM THE DRAMA ABOUT THE GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WHO JOED THE MERS' PROTT - VIO

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. 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 — two groups that, 1980s England at least, you might have figured would steer clear of each other — partner surprisgly effectively the real-life story that's affectnately fictnalized Pri.

25, 2014The classic unn anthem “Solidary Forever, ” sung by Pete Seeger, troduc “Pri, ” a stirrg film about the uneasy aln of Brish meworkers and gay and lbian activists durg a labor strike the mid-1980s. “Pri, ” unlike “The Full Monty, ” isn’t a edy, but lghs are harvted om the llisn of macho workg-class mers South Wal and young Londoners, mostly male, who gather at a gay strike was well unrway when Mark Ashton (Ben Schzer, “The Book Thief”), a fervent poli, began recg iends at a gay pri march London to raise money to help the mers and their fai.

COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'

The ps were so foced on breakg the strike Wal, he poted out, that their harassment of gay people London had temporarily fledglg anizatn, Lbians and Gays Support the Mers, tri to get touch wh the unn and eventually reach a lol chapter a South Wal village. The first layer of ice is broken when Jonathan (an improbably st Domic Wt, of “The Wire”), an actor and gay party animal, improvis a wild “Saturday Night Fever”-style solo to Shirley & Company’s “Shame, Shame, Shame. The gay supporters, bis Mark and Jonathan, clu Jonathan’s lover, Geth (Andrew Stt), who grew up Wal, fled to London and hasn’t been home sce, and Joe (Gee MacKay), a shy, semi-closeted llege unn si clus Hefa (Imelda Stnton), a gung-ho, unflappable anizer who enthiastilly wel the gay ntgent, and Cliff (Bill Nighy), the unn’s pole, haltgly shy secretary.

Var gre of antigay sentiment are exprsed by the mers, yet the movie ref to monize anyone except Mreen (Lisa Paley), an tractably homophobic mer’s wife who leaks the news of the aln to a tabloid. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Bill Nighy (centre) was uned wh his Pri -stars at the London premiereThe 1984 mers' strike and the gay rights movement may seem like unlikely on-screen partners - but their g together Matthew Warch's film Pri has produced, acrdg to actor Bill Nighy, "the most important Brish film of recent years" Nighy is one of the stars of the movie, which documents the te story of how Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr (LGBT) groups beme the biggt fancial supporters of the mers, who went on strike for more than a year 1984, prott agast wispread p closur. Pri foc on one London group of lbian and gay activists, who "adopted" a mg muny south Wal, spe ial spicn and prejudice om Stnton, Paddy Conside, Domic Wt and Andrew Stt - Moriarty TV's Sherlock - are also part of the ensemble st.

If you were asked by your grandchildren what velopments your lifetime ma you most proud, one of them might be the civil rights movement Ameri and the other would be the emancipatn of gay men and women. "You have to remember that Pri is set 30 years ago and the Gay Pri march weren't a celebratn or Mardi Gras, they were polil events that would see protters beaten up by the police. "What is so funny is that we are makg a film about failure - bee the mers ultimately lost their battle - but we do feature a scene the film of the Gay Pri march London 1985.

PRI AND JOY: GAY ACTIVISM AND BRISH FILM

The full might of the Natnal Unn of Meworkers showed up for the first time history to that march, and that was a direct rult of the gay rights movement and their fundraisg. Image source, PublicyImage ptn, Imelda Stnton and Domic Wt show how the te life events picted Pri reveal the steely spir of the mers and their supporters"The followg year gay rights beme enshred the Labour Party nstutn, and that aga was a direct rult of the events we show Pri.

PRI AND THE PS: WHEN GAY RIGHTS MET THE STRIKG MERS

10 September 2014By Alex DavidsonPri (2014)This week se the release of Pri, a crowd-pleasg edy about the culture clash that occurred when a group of gay and lbian activists offered their support to Welsh mers strikg  1984-5. The World Ten Tim Over (1963)Lbians were rarely reprented a posive light at the cema, although Cicely Courtneidge  The L-shaped Room (1962) and, pendg on how you read the film, Sylvia Syms and June Rchie  The World Ten Tim Over (1963) were exceptns, and uld be seen as promotg tolerance for gay women.

Derek Jarman’s feature but Sebastiane (1976) drew parallels wh the martyrdom of Sat Sebastian and ntemporary gay persecutn, while Nighthawks (1978) showed the sympathetic lead beg threatened wh unemployment for discsg his homosexualy wh class. Framed Youth: Revenge of the Teenage Perverts (1983)Framed Youth: Revenge of the Teenage Perverts (1983) featur queer teens discsg their sometim harrowg experienc Thatcher’s Bra, while open and hont gays and lbians partied hard the charmgly right-on One Five (1983), celebratg sexual diversy and challengg homophobia.

And ACT UP filmed their protts agast the poor ernment rponse to the AIDS epimic, claimg polil homophobia rmed the lack of actn – if was gay people dyg rather than straight people, fightg the disease was low prry. Two of Us (1987)Often art reacts to the polil climate, but the suatn was reversed wh the broadst of The Two of Us (1988), a sweet romance between two gay teenagers that, bizarrely, ed huge ntroversy owg to the recent implementatn of the nox Sectn 28, which forba the teachg of gay sex tn schools. Y, Tman Capote was gay, y he is portrayed as such, y shows his partner, BUT the primary foc of the film was Capote's alholism and his wrg of “In Cold Blood” (and that is FINE, aga, was an EXCELLENT film, jt not a LGBT film my opn).

10 SENTIAL MOVI ABOUT GAY RIGHTS

Terrific st wh excellent chemistry and some genuely funny moments, Fourth Man Out is a rehg gay edy that I thk many would enjoy (even the "manlit" men of this world), thanks to the rehg and likable performance of Evan Todd as the likable, awkward, r-mechanic Adam and all his goofy, well-meang, straight "bros. A pregnant New York Cy social worker begs to velop romantic feelgs for her gay bt iend, and cis she'd rather raise her child wh him, much to the dismay of her overbearg boyiend. A young man returns to his fay farm, after a long stay ex-gay nversn therapy, and is torn between the expectatns of his emotnally distant father, and the memori of a past, lovg relatnship he has tried to bury.

Not nearly as good or funny as Borat, but the film do a good job revealg the nonsense that is homophobia (Brüno viss a gay-to-straight nverter, a group of redneck hunters, and a martial arts expert who shows him how to "fend himself agast the gays"). One terrific scene among many terrific scen the nsistently terrific Pri fds a polil activist enterg a rerd label's offic to requt support for a benef by gay micians for the strikg mers.

Even Elton John was still officially the, as Matthew Warch's film clarifi, was the early 1980s that gay culture fally ma s first unapologetic, unmediated asslts on popular culture. The BBC still felt the need to ban that last song, but, for the first time the century, gay artists felt able to adm – ed publicly celebrate – their sexualy the most public of spac. Confirmatn me forcefully and noisily when Frankie Go to Hollywood, the HI-NRG Se Village People, beme "bigger than the Beatl" celebrat the unlikely meetg of terts that occurred between strikg mers and gay rights anisatns at the begng of Margaret Thatcher's send term.

PRI: WATCH GEE MACKAY AN EXCLIVE CLIP OM THE DRAMA ABOUT THE GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WHO JOED THE MERS' PROTT - VIO

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hio cream-puff operettas lonised Broadway and the Wt folk still make polilly charged art, but placency, homogeney and nformy have done for prott culture as a mastream force. 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. 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.

Some of even film is unashamedly polil, both s reprentatn of the prejudice agast homosexuals at a time was AIDS was vastatg the gay muny and the hostily of misters, media and police to the mers' fight to keep ps open, but the treatment ensur that this is an immensely entertag and often very funny work. Although the movie wears s polil heart on s sleeve, avoids an over-simplistic portrayal of the gay e by showg entrenched opposn to their volvement the mers dispute om sectns of the Welsh muny and challenge om gays themselv as to why they should be volved a workers' strike, although the ntroversy of the lack of a ballot thorisg the strike self is script is a triumph wh every le makg an impact and tellg somethg and there are some wonrful jok. Although GLSM was eventually shunned by the official strike mtee and the mers lost the strike and almost all of Bra's ps have subsequently closed, the ncludg scen of the film and the fal bs of rmative text turn this historic teractn to a succs that should spire the prent day gay muny and labour movement alike.