DocFest Reviews

There’s no escaping the controversy surrounding the events of 18th June 1984. It hasn’t become known as the Battle Of Orgreave for nothing. On the 40th anniversary, director Daniel Gordon’s latest film, Strike; An Uncivil War is being released, and it’s a powerful reminder of both what happened, and perhaps more importantly, why there has never been an inquiry.

Daniel Gordan is best known for his powerful 2016 documentary Hillsborough, laying bare the events of that tragic day, and revealing a shocking level of cover-up, and attempts to shift the blame. Strike: An Uncivil War seems to be its natural successor, as it tells a depressingly similar story. The level of planning, cover up, shifting and avoiding of blame revealed here is similarly shocking.

The film sets the 18th of June in the context of the year-long miners’ strike. As I lived through these events, revisiting them seems so real, but I’m well aware that maybe half of the population don’t realise what went on. It wasn’t just a strike, it was a marker of social and political change, when a government, led by Margaret Thatcher, in pitching themselves against the mineworkers’ union, also provoked issues around class, community, regional discrimination and a whole host of social issues.

Through interviews with the miners, the police and other people involved on that day, and with access to previously unseen documents, Strike; An Uncivil War is a powerful documentary which hopefully will be widely seen. The old Sheffield Crown Court stars at the end of the film in perhaps the most shocking scenes of all. The legal team who defended the 14 pickets accused of rioting, and facing many years in jail if convicted, recalled how the case against them collapsed.

Senior officers were proven to have lied, and arresting officers’ statements were found to be so similar to each other that one officer admitted they had been dictated to them. Despite all this, there was never any investigation. No-one seemed interested to find out why all this happened and who made those decisions. Legal teams talked of ‘wholesale dishonesty’ and a ‘spiteful prosecution’ but nothing was done.

Director Daniel Gordon says of the film: “It is scandalous to discover how far they were prepared to go, in a ‘democratic’ country such as Britain, with results that continue to have an impact to this day. I hope this film can continue to raise awareness and, in some way, shine a light on the justice denied.”

In 2016 the Conservative Government ruled out an enquiry into policing at Orgreave. The fight goes on.

Director Daniel Gordon.

Screenings:

• Sunday 16th June, 10:30 – 13:11 at Crucible Theatre
• Monday 17th June, 12:30 – 14:41 at Showroom – Channel 5 Screen 2

Made In Ethiopia

There are several images that spring to mind when we think of Ethiopia, and they’re not all positive. The news in recent years has not been kind, reporting more on famine and unrest than on their growing success in manufacturing industries.

Ethiopia is changing. Ten years ago Addis Ababa had very few tall buildings, but now, with mostly Chinese investment, it is beginning to resemble a modern capital city. In a population of 115 million people, half of Ethiopia’s population are under 18. And with an increase of around 3 million a year, the country needs more jobs.

In this documentary feature debut, filmed over four years by Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan, we focus on a dusty farming town, just outside the capital which finds itself at the new frontier of globalization. It already has a Chinese industrial zone that is now planning to expand, and which will create 30,000 jobs, which naturally the government welcomes. But the 83 farmers and their families who live there, and rely on the land for their lives, don’t want to move.

On top of that, The town also needs investments in local hospitals, amenities, markets, and schools, which causes an underlying resentment of the money which seems to leave the country. The film is a nuanced and complex look at China’s evolving presence in Africa, told through the central story of a charismatic business woman, tasked with overseeing the expansion, but which also looks at the lives of the people who are working in the enormous factories.

As the human stories at its centre unfold, the film challenges us to rethink the relationship between tradition, growth and welfare. As the country develops, how does it affect the well-being of its people?

Directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan.

Screenings:

• Thursday 13th June, 15:15 – 17:05 at Showroom – Warner Chappell Production Music Screen 4
• Saturday 15th June 20:30 – 22:20 at Curzon – Screen 2

The Ride Ahead

Samuel Habib has made a remarkable film about his life as a 21 year old, living with a disability. He has made the film mostly using cameras mounted on his mobility wheelchair, one facing him, the other facing out into the world. He also provides the narration as the film documents his journey to discover how to be an adult, but moreover an adult living with a disability.

Most of his friends have gone to college, and he is determined to become more independent. He has lost a sense of belonging since he left High School and so enrols in a local community college. But even there his disability seems to prevent him forming friendships. His laboured speech and use of a communication device are a barrier.

He has goals which are typical of all adults his age. Moving out of the family home. College. Establishing a career. Dating. Sex. A turning point comes when he reaches out to the community of disabled activists across the US, who tell their own stories and give him their take on how to navigate the world.

Sometimes he talks to them online, at other times he flies around the country to seek their advice, which is in itself hazardous as airlines are notorious for damaging wheelchairs, and shockingly do this to 35 of them everyday!

The stats are against him, and he knows it. Only 40% of people with disabilities are employed; 1 in 4 live in poverty; only 10% go to college. Samuel has a real talent as a film-maker, and this debut feature is highly recommended.

Directors Samuel Habib and Dan Habib.

Screenings:

• Wednesday 12th June, 15:30 – 17:27 at Showroom – Screen 1
• Thursday 13th June, 11:00 – 12:57 at The Light – Screen 6
• Saturday 15th June, 10:30 – 12:27 at Showroom – Screen 1

Googoosh – Made Of Fire

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the world renown film star and singer Googoosh was forced to live in silence. She was once a cultural icon inside Iran, singing, and making over 25 movies. Women copied the way she dressed and her hairstyle, her fame spread to Hollywood and beyond, but it all came to a dramatic halt when the rise to power of Ayatollah Khomeini swept away all western influences overnight.

She was in LA at the time, and was told she’d be executed if she returned. But she missed her homeland so much that she went back, and was briefly imprisoned. For 20 years, she lived alone and unrecognised, having been made to vow never to perform again.

In this gentle but remarkable film, directed and produced by Niloufar Taghizadeh, she quietly and movingly tells the story of her escape, her return to the stage, and the bewildering series of events of her life in Iran and beyond. When she first performed in Canada in 2000, she admits she had no idea how her voice would sound, as she hadn’t dared sing in over 20 years.

She has become an iconic voice in the US in support of the recent Women-Life-Freedom movement, in a mirror to another film also having its DocFest premier, A Move. She has had a remarkable career, and her 2023 tour has been announced as her final one before she retires.

My Sweet Land

My Sweet Land follows Vrej, an 11 year old boy growing up in what at first sight is an idyllic place to live. He walks home from school surrounded by roaming ducks and beehives full of honey, with dreams of becoming a dentist for the village.

But his life is far from enviable. He lives with the legacy of recent regional wars, and with the imminent threat of another nationalistic battle starting again soon. His youthful and naive optimism takes a blow when he is evacuated as conflict breaks out once again in his home of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

When he and his family return home everything has changed. Buildings are shattered, there are landmines in the soil, and school is now dominated by military training for an uncertain and threatening future. We take our childhood for granted, that it will be a protected and nurturing place, but for the children of this village, it is far from peaceful.

Sareen Hairabedian has written, directed and produced a disturbing insight into how war and the threat of war ruins lives. Vrej’s dreams of a future helping people is forgotten in a desperate and depressing world of conflict.

A Move

At the start of this film, Elahe Esmaili returns home to Mashhad, to help her parents move to a new place after 40 years. But she’s part of a much larger movement in Iran. She has stopped wearing a hijab.

They are all going to a family gathering at a birthday party, and her intention not to cover her head is causing upset, principally with her parents. ‘What do you want to prove?’, asks her mother.  ‘Nothing. I just want to be myself’, says Elahe at the start of the film.

Growing up in a religious family, she was compelled, as were all the women, to wear a hijab, even at family gatherings. But, partly inspired by the Women-Life-Freedom movement, set up after the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, after her arrest for improper hijab, Elahe is taking a quiet but determined stand. A new generation of women are doing likewise, refusing to be controlled by the patriarchy.

In this intimate portrait of family life, Elahe has perfectly captured the generational differences of attitude and opinion on the idea that head-covering is compulsory, but only of course for women.

Most interesting for me was how the older men are quite willing to discuss and compromise, whereas the older women remain totally opposed, citing the ‘fact’ that it will upset the men, which doesn’t turn out to be true. They have assumed the older men will be upset, but they’ve never talked to them about it.

I chatted with the director, Elahe Esmaili, about how the film came to be…

“I was inspired to do something myself by other women who are taking risks, including risking their own lives by not covering their heads. People talk to each other and support what is happening, but it’s hard to find people who you can trust, and I thought that seeing something on a screen would be somehow uplifting, and inspire them to be more hopeful and to keep going.’

“No-one knew what I was planning on the day of the party, so the reactions were spontaneous. My sisters, in particular, weren’t happy, but now they’ve seen the film they have said they are all so pleased that I did it. They know that the future will be for their daughters, who don’t want to wear the hijab, and they themselves have now started removing their hijab at family gatherings. The rulers get their strength from the people, and they will lose their power to impose the head-covering rules if more older men like my cousin see that it’s not an earthquake, it’s just a woman without a hijab.’

“It’s still dangerous for people to be involved with projects like this. Several of my team still live in Iran, without any second residency, so they’ve asked that their names don’t appear in the credits. Recently, the regime has hardened its attitude, in light of the conflicts currently raging in Israel and beyond, arresting women without Hijab on the streets, imposing enormous fines and sacking women from their jobs. But when the president died, and they are now looking for support, they have eased up, as they want the women’s votes.”

Directed by Elahe Esmaili.

Screenings:

• Thursday 13th June, 20:00 – 21:56 at Curzon – Screen 2
• Friday 14th June, 10:45 – 12:41 at Showroom – Channel 5 Screen 2

To book any of the above screenings, head to the DocFest website.