The residues of history in the Welsh landscape plus the traditions of working class knowledge and solidarity are examined in this searching, moving film by political film collective Cinema Action.
Charismatic union convener Shirley Butts assumes the focus, but her daughter's attempts to find work also feature as she reads from Raymond Williams and stares out at an imposing London skyline.
The film developed out of an earlier project called The Social Contract. Shirley's daughter reads from The Country and the City by Raymond Williams and original music by Robert Wyatt and Scritti Politti also features. Visually, it occasionally recalls Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her. In many ways Cinema Action's master piece, it was broadcast on the opening night of Channel 4 in 1982 (BFI)
Part of So That You Can Live: The Oppositional Films of Cinema Action
Also showing as part of this season: Early Shorts (1969-1970), Films from the Clyde, Shorts (1972-1975), People of Ireland, The Miners' Film
With thanks to Chris Reeves at Platform Films
Presented by Wavelength
F: facebook.com/wavelengthdocs
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dir. Cinema Action
year: 1981
country: UK
run-time: 85 minutes
Doors 6:45pm
Film 7:15pm
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
“Independent cinema in Britain is unthinkable without the achievements of the innovative film collective Cinema Action”
“A spiky and uncompromising non-fiction feature: part biography, part-documentary, part-history and part-elegy to a dying landscape... The technical presentation of the film is used to destroy the illusion that this is a ‘story’ with a ‘message’ and to force the audience to make up its own mind”
“Distinctly moving and reflective... if this film was French it would be considered an arthouse classic”