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Winter on Fire – Film review – Anna Burton

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This film charts the Ukranian rebellion in the bitter winter of 2013/2014 against corrupt President Viktor Yanukovyvh, who was elected on a false promise to bring the country into the European Union, and instead cut a deal with Russian’s Vladimir Putin.

What initially starts out as a protest around EU membership turns into a violent fight for freedom and for Ukranian identity with an armed retaliation from the government’.

This heart-wrenching documentary reminds us of the importance of standing up for the values of democracy and freedom. Told over 93-days, this film of epic proportions is a documentary of violence and sadness but ultimately people power.

My heart is still aching from watching this film. To all of the heroes, thank you.

Available on Netflix

Watch the trailer

 

 

 

 

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Mining Poems or Odes

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Friday 23 September 17:15

Robert Fullerton is a force. Welder turned poet or poet turned welder? It doesn’t much matter in this evocation of his life and philosophy, and the forces that helped make him a mesmerising artist.

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The Judgment

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Film premiere Saturday 24 September 17:30 Q&A

The number of migrants/refugees being smuggled across our borders are now daily news. But how do these people make it to Europe through often hostile and unforgiving terrain? Whilst refugees stories are told, we know less about the people who actually do the smuggling.

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Girlhood

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Friday 23 September 20:30

A film to make you laugh, cry, and despair in equal measure, the latest masterpiece from Céline Sciamma (Tomboy) is one of the most powerful films in years on the subject of youth. Following Marieme, a young woman being denied educational opportunities by the French school system, she starts to embrace life

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Labour films on the world screen – Tom Zaniello

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As I think back on the last four years of the Labour Film Festivals in London and now Liverpool (North West), I am struck by the big generalizations we often turn to while discussing the labour and related films on offer. Globalization has probably the term been around the longest, denoting the rapid export of capitol around the world to take advantage of low-paying workers in the Third World as well as the changes in transportation (container ships), technology (digitalization) and control (deregulation and privatization).

Two of our films explore the drive for profits in this global market. ‘Daughters of a Lesser God’ explores the bangle makers of Hyderabad in Pakistan where the owners use the very homes of their workers as unsafe ‘factories’. In ‘The 33’ miners of gold and copper take incredible risks to penetrate the earth to unbelievable depths, but the owners do not take sufficient precautions for their health and safety.

Similarly our classic selection ‘Silkwood’ shows how vulnerable the workers are to nuclear contamination and company manipulation in a highly mechanized and organized industry. The question of the underclass or the unorganized or the precariat has arisen in past festival films as well. Two of our films dramatize these marginal workers and cast off’s of the working class in very different ways. In ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (screening at the North West labour Film Fest), Ken Loach explores a couple who have to fight every minute to maintain their dignity in the face of a bureaucracy that thinks nothing of assigning them a London hostel for the homeless 300 miles away. The young man in ‘7 Chinese Brothers’ pretends not to be overly concerned about his drift from one low-paying service job to the other but it is clear that there is a cost, again to his dignity not to mention his sheer survival. A third issue, on all of our minds is the migrant and refugee situation, now reaching worldwide dimensions. Only one of our films ‘The Judgment’ directly addresses this, but its intensity is daunting as we follow a Bulgarian ex-army man who used to patrol a border to keep Bulgarians fleeing the Soviet bloc in now finds himself desperate enough to help Syrians navigate a dangerous mountain pass to escape, most likely, to western Europe (eventually). A labour film festival wouldn’t be worth its digital projector if it didn’t look at the dignity and dedication of the working class. ‘The Operator’ portrays a woman handling an emergency call from a distraught woman caught with her child in building on fire. ‘The Operator’ handles this life and death situation with skill and empathy.

The Scots poet Robert Fullerton in the film ‘Mining Poems or Odes’ offers a clever analogy between welding and poem-making worth of our attention and respect.

Two of our films do not fit easily into any of the categories I have covered so far but both offer what might be called ‘the big (cinematic) picture’. ‘Trumbo’ a historical drama of politics during the right-wing American anti-communist hysteria of the 1940s and 1950s. A progressive screenwriter, very successful, who happens to be a Communist, incurs the wrath of the McCarthyites who come down on him relentlessly. It is not likely that anyone in the establishment can come down hard on Michael Moore, because he would turn them upside down first. ‘Where to Invade Next’ is his satire on what too many wayward and dogmatic Americans think they can do without e.g.,  a good health-care system, access to abortion, workers’ paid holidays, and female leadership at the top. (Well, we’ll see on November 8th if the USA joins the UK in this category! (Hilary). I hope to see you at many of these films and the Q&A sessions so that we can explore these crucial issues and developments in our world.

Tom Zaniello

Author ‘Union Maids, Reds & Riff Raff’ ‘The cinema of Globalization

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International Contest 2017

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Our Labour Film Festivals celebrates national and international cinema with the twin objective of recognising and supporting new filmmakers and also improving knowledge, accessibility and understanding of social and labour issues amongst a wide and diverse audience.

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MODERN SLAVERY

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Our retrospective on the films of Nick Broomfield is carefully selected around the theme of Modern Slavery. With special guests, this promises to be an eye-opening insight into the lives of hidden workers; past and present.

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AWARDS NIGHT

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Join us for the awards ceremony where the winners of the contest will be announced. With special guests and a chance to preview the shortlisted films. This is not to be missed!

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THE PRINCE CHARLES

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We are delighted to be returning to the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square for our fifth anniversary. It is after all the home of cult cinema! Join us for Ghosts, Metropolis and the Awards Night.

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VOTE IN THE PUBLIC AWARDS

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As part of our LABOUR FILM FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL CONTEST, the public get to vote for their favorite SHORT (documentary and and fiction). They are all absolutely brilliant. The video with the largest number of ‘likes’ wins the public vote. It’s that simple. Go to our youtube page to watch the films and like your favorites HERE

 

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