here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nDirector: Carl Joyce<\/p>\n
Writer: Paul Summers<\/p>\n
Cast: Joyce McAndrew, Amber Pearson, Brenda Heslop, Jac Howard, Jean Spence, Mollie Brown, Paul Summers<\/p>\n
Running time: 7 mins<\/p>\n
The situation in the UK is symptomatic the global political moment at large; a crumbling economic system has rendered humanity seemingly incapable of responding to a number of rising existential threats, while those who have profited from that state of affairs will throw laws, lies and violence at anyone championing change. As a result, while we are aware that without action we face social and environmental catastrophe, a better life still seems tragically beyond our grasp \u2013 while a government seemingly bent on digging our collective grave seems untouchable.<\/p>\n
Indeed, when looking back on a century of cruel oppression and bitter defeats it is hard to feel any kind of optimism for the coming decade. But looking back further, the very fact that we no longer live in any semblance of democracy, and not some brutal feudal hierarchy, is proof that over the course of generations the world can be changed. It is this level of much-needed perspective that the political film-poem arise!<\/em> brings to the table, just days before a \u201conce in a generation election\u201d looks set to deliver Boris Johnson\u2019s gaggle of liars, racists and murderers a large majority in Parliament.<\/p>\nBuilding on an emotive yet methodical poem by Paul Summers, Carl Joyce\u2019s short-film provides a whistle-stop tour of the last 40 years, summarising generations of heartbreak and suffering in the process. The ghosts of the miners\u2019 strike loom large, as Summers\u2019 words conjure up memories of an ill-fated fight against the merciless policies of Margaret Thatcher \u2013 while Joyce pairs this with the terraced skeletons of Northern pit villages that now stand as a legacy to that defeat.<\/p>\n
It is at this point that you might be forgiven for feeling the situation is hopeless. The film undoubtedly echoes the feelings of countless people up and down the UK, who have been beaten and bloodied by a long history of cuts and privatisation, whose lives have been wrecked for the sake of a cheap buck and the march of marketised \u2018progress\u2019 \u2013 but while this segment of the poem is hard to bear, it is important to hear it in the context of what comes next.<\/p>\n
Summers’ words suddenly interject:<\/p>\n
& so we march <\/em>
this bastille day<\/em><\/p>\nto dunelm\u2019s slopes,<\/em>
to durham town,<\/em><\/p>\nsquat citadel <\/em>
of cuthbert\u2019s bones\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n& so we march<\/em>
on durham town,<\/em><\/p>\nreclaim the detail <\/em>
of our pasts,<\/em><\/p>\nto give it voice,<\/em>
to farm its hope<\/em><\/p>\nto let it seep <\/em>
into our futures.<\/em><\/p>\nOur thoughts are guided back to world-changing struggles hundreds of years ago, which we almost take for granted, but show that the status quo is not untouchable. We are then prompted to consider how that legacy can inform and embolden our own efforts for liberation.<\/p>\n
This powerful segment is coupled with images from modern day struggles, including the ongoing work of young employees at McDonalds railing against their employers for improved workplace safety, job security, healthier conditions and a living wage. I remember being told by a seasoned trade unionist 10 years ago that such workers were too precarious to mobilise, while they would be too easy for the fast-food giant to swiftly eject from its ranks \u2013 but now the so-called McStrike sees hundreds of those same people openly joining unions and demanding to be heard.<\/p>\n
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