When mers and gay activists uned: the real story of the film Pri | 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
• COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'
• BRISH COALMERS STRIKE WH A GAY COALN IN 'PRI,' A CROWD-PLEASER

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. "We need a character who, like the dience, arriv bewilred at a Gay Pri march.

PRI REVIEW – WHEN GAY ACTIVISTS STCK A AL WH MERS

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.

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

"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.

COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'

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.

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

We know about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same. 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.

The film opened quietly New York at the 23 Street Chelsea the word pri, for many brgs to md "Gay Pri. "But Pri is a film about virtuo pri—class pri, gay pri and genr pri.

You know your not gog to watch a "gay" film when the openg scen are of mers on a picket le, wh Pete Seeger sgg "Solidary Forever, " rarely sung Ameri today. " And what unn surpris than straight mers and gay activists? A natural-born activist Mark Ashton (Ben Schzer) ralli a small group of gays to raise funds for the strikg mers as Lbians and Gays Support Mers.

Not only is he homosexual he also om Ulster and knows somethg about sectarian and sexual opprsn. Sce they are om anti-unn London, there is an immediate sense of mistst, pound by homophobia.

In 1985 a large ntgent of straight mers led the Gay Pri Para London wh band and unfurled banners of one hand graspg another solidary and unn of purpose. Furthermore, as a sign of this inty of mon enavor, were not for the NUM the timoro Labour Party wouldn't have e out for Gay Rights the party platform The Welsh are known for sgg, so is not surprisg at the muny hall to hear a swellg chos of voic tong Bread and Ros, a song associated wh the 1912 Massachetts textile strike.

It rri the forceful msage that gays don't necsarily stand up for gay people, straights for straights, workers for workers, but actg ncert they n act towards polil change for the better.

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.

Yet is also a untry wh gay marriage – supported, to his cred, by a Conservative prime mister. 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.