Defiance: Fighting the Far Right is a landmark three-part series produced by Rogan Productions for Channel 4, which, for the first time on British television, uncovers the history of the British Asian led fight back against waves of fascist and racist violence in the 1970s and ‘80s. First aired over the course of three evenings in April 2024, the critically acclaimed series received a rapturous response on social media, and became a nationally trending topic for the entire week.
In a talk at Sheffield Doc Fest (2024) the filmmakers and contributors of Channel 4’s landmark series Defiance: Fighting the Far Right shared their journey of unveiling the hidden history of South Asian anti-racist activists in 1970s and ‘80s Britain.
It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive - Bisan Owda
‘Bisan Owda (Arabic: بيسان عودة; born 1997 or 1998) is a Palestinian journalist, activist, and filmmaker.[1] She is best known for her social media videos documenting her experiences during the Israel–Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.[2] She won a 2024 Peabody Award in the News category and an Edward R. Murrow Award for News Series for her Al Jazeera Media Network show, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive. The show is also nominated for the 2024 News and Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form.’ - Wiki
Our Hobby is Depeche Mode - Jeremy Deller and Nick Abrahams
Great doc film now showing on i-player.
The previously unreleased 2006 documentary “Our Hobby Is Depeche Mode” by video/installation artist Jeremy Deller and psychotherapist/filmmaker Nick Abrahams is available now in the BBC Storyville series.
Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World (2023)
“Public Enemy’s Chuck D leads a cast of hip-hop icons and leading African-American and Latino cultural commentators as they chart the factors that led to the birth of the revolutionary art form of hip-hop in 1970s New York, as well as the creation of the seminal hit The Message.
They evoke a picture of how, after the turbulence of the 60s and the civil rights struggles, desperate social conditions and the experience of countless dispossessed people of colour living in a city mired in crisis helped give birth to a new art form.”
John Akomfrah – Mimesis: African Soldier
Mimesis: African Soldier by John Akomfrah uncovers the undiscussed story of the Commonwealth soldiers who volunteered to fight in World War I: the war of their colonial masters.
Akomfrah blends archive imagery of African and Asian soldiers at work, digging trenches and fetching and carrying with original, newly filmed footage imagining the men as they leave their partners behind.
With a soundtrack that mixes African and Indian song with new compositions, John Akomfrah paints a vivid cinematic portrait of a forgotten, or overlooked history.
“The most important thing for me, the takeaway, is that African soldiers fought in this war, that they played a variety of roles in the war as foot soldiers, as carriers. Every facet, every avenue, every job in the war, if you look long enough, you will see someone of either Asian or African origin/heritage in that role.” – John Akomfrah
The film is showing at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, 1 October 2022—8 January 2023.
PRIDE (2014)
PRIDE (2014) is currently playing on BBC iPlayer. Brilliant film! Thoroughly recommend it.
'In 1984, with Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party in power, a group of lesbian and gay activists, led by Mark Ashton, find unlikely allies in a collective of Welsh miners taking industrial action following pit closures.
With both groups equally despised by Thatcher, Ashton proposes a show of solidarity between them, but tabloid smears and a frosty reception from the miners' families threaten to derail his plans.'
One-Eighty (iPhone Short Film)
From tranquility to trouble, a young man's life turns upside down in a matter of hours. Producer / Actor: Derek Divyne Director / Editor: Ariel Julia Hairston Director of Photography / Music Producer: Jeremy Harris Associate Producer: Abel Veras Cast: Derek Divyne, Akeem Foote, Abel Veras, Ariel Julia Hairston, Kiah Clingman #oneeighty #shortfilm #ShotoniPhone #Atlanta
Some Kind of Heaven (2021) - Dir. Lance Oppenheim
“America’s seniors have discovered the fountain of youth. It’s in The Villages, FL. With SOME KIND OF HEAVEN, first-time feature director Lance Oppenheim cracks the manicured facade of The Villages, America’s largest retirement community – a massive, self-contained utopia located in Central Florida. Behind the gates of this palm tree-lined fantasyland, SOME KIND OF HEAVEN invests in the dreams and desires of a small group of Villages residents – and one interloper – who are unable to find happiness within the community’s pre-packaged paradise. With strikingly composed cinematography, this candy-colored documentary offers a tender and surreal look at the never-ending quest for finding meaning and love in life’s final act. Now available everywhere”
Directed by Lance Oppenheim
Produced by Darren Aronofsky, Kathleen Lingo, Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman, Melissa Oppenheim Lano, Pacho Velez, and Lance Oppenheim
https://somekindofheaven.com/
Recommended by Charlie Parry
THE NOWHERE INN (2021) Dakota Johnson, St. Vincent
‘A rockumentary with a whole load of differences, The Nowhere Inn asks who the real Annie Clark is and winds up without an answer, giving away next to nothing about the woman behind St. Vincent apart from the fact that she has a pretty damn dark sense of humour. Melding a deadpan mockumentary with moody live footage from the ‘Masseduction’ tour and a heavily stylised psychological thriller, Annie Clark plays herself, as does her best friend Carrie Brownstein, who Clark has hired to make a film about her.’
The Velvet Underground (2021) Dir. Todd Haynes
‘The Velvet Underground. A hypnotic new documentary and the first major film to tell the band’s legendary story. Playing in theaters and on Apple TV+ now. The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock and roll’s most revered bands. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage. ‘
The film looks great, superb editing using split screen and much of Andy Warhol's films from the period. The film is as much about the experimental art/ film scene as well as the music and band. Featuring interviews with film maker Jonas Mekas too
INTERVIEWS / Director Q&A…
This filmmaker conversation (below) from IDA, features director and producer Todd Haynes and producers Carolyn Hepburn, Christopher Clements, and Julie Goldman, moderated by Anne Thompson, Editor at Large at IndieWire.
At 12.53 Todd Haynes talks about the way the interviews were shot and why they were treated, edited, formatted how they were.
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UPRISING (2021) - Steve McQueen
From Academy Award winner Steve McQueen comes Uprising, a vivid and visceral three-part series for BBC One examining three events from 1981.
‘1981: a devastating fire leaves 13 black teens dead. The protests, unrest and accusations of indifference defined race relations for a generation.’
Episode 1: ‘After the New Cross fire and the Black People’s Day of Action, tensions between the community and the police escalated when a massive stop-and-search operation was launched, targeting black people on the streets of Brixton. In April, the situation boiled over into one of the biggest riots in British history. Buildings were burned down and hundreds of police injured. Riots then flared up all over the country, from Southall to Toxteth, but by the year's end, the people of New Cross were no closer to knowing who started the New Cross fire or why - and a lack of answers and justice has lingered over the case ever since’ - BBC iPlayer
Also see his Film Drama series Small Axe, the episode ‘Lovers Rock’
Gunda: Mother, Pig
Gunda provides a glimpse into the raw and simple power of nature through mesmerising encounters with farm animals, the eponymous Gunda, a mother pig, two ingenious cows and a scene-stealing, one-legged chicken.
Film-maker Victor Kossakovsky reminds us of the many lives that share this earth with humans and their value. From the first steps of piglets to the roaming joy of freed cows, Gunda: Mother, Pig draws a connection between human and animal, and the planet that we share with creatures great and small. (BBC iPlayer)
Victor Kossakovsky’s 10 Rules for documentary filmmaking:
Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky’s 10 Rules for documentary filmmaking:
1. Don’t film if you can live without filming.
2. Don’t film if you want to say something – just say it or write it.
Film only if you want to show something, or you want people to see something. This concerns both the film as a whole and every single shot within the film.
3. Don’t film, if you already knew your message before filming – just become a teacher. Don’t try to save the world. Don’t try to change the world. Better if your film will change you. Discover both the world and yourself whilst filming.
4. Don’t film something you just hate. Don’t film something you just love. Film when you aren’t sure if you hate it or love it. Doubts are crucial for making art. Film when you hate and love at the same time.
5. You need your brain both before and after filming, but don’t use your brain during filming. Just film using your instinct and intuition.
6. Try to not force people to repeat an action or words. Life is unrepeatable and unpredictable. Wait, look, feel and be ready to film using your own way of filming. Remember that the very best films are unrepeatable. Remember that the very best films were based on unrepeatable shots. Remember that the very best shots capture unrepeatable moments of life with an unrepeatable way of filming.
7. Shots are the basis of cinema. Remember that cinema was invented as one single shot – documentary, by the way – without any story. Or story was just inside that shot. Shots must first and foremost provide the viewers with new impressions that they never had before.
8. Story is important for documentary, but perception is even more important. Think, first, what the viewers will feel while seeing your shots. Then, form a dramatic structure of your film using the changes to their feelings.
9. Documentary is the only art, where every esthetical element almost always has ethical aspects and every ethical aspect can be used esthetically. Try to remain human, especially whilst editing your films. Maybe, nice people should not make documentaries.
10. Don’t follow my rules. Find your own rules. There is always something that only you can film and nobody else.
Posted: October 2, 2009 by Eva (LINK to Source)
Summer Soul (...Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) - Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (2021)
Such an amazing film! Footage unseen for 50 years. Amazing performances from: Stevie Wonder, Sly and the family Stone, Nina Simone, Staple Singers... Great music but also covers the shift in politics, culture and identity. Essential watch!
”Summer of Soul (...Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is the acclaimed debut by filmmaker Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson. For six weeks in the summer of 1969, just 100 miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). It was an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. After that summer, the footage was never seen and largely forgotten – until now.
Summer of Soul brings us back to a powerful and transformative moment in history and stands as a testament to music and culture as collective empowerment. In times of unrest, it comes as a moving testimony and an inspiration. Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson presents a powerful and transporting film that includes never-before-seen concert performances from Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach and more.” - Watershed
Nomadland (2021) - Dir. Chloé Zhao
Nomadland is a stunning film by Dir. Chloé Zhao, with amazing performance by Frances McDormand.
It won Best Picture award at The Oscars - 93rd Academy Awards 2021
Now streaming on Disney+, and Amazon, and showing in selected cinemas when they reopen from May 17th.
SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME (2015), also Directed by Chloé Zhao, is currently on Mubi (Free with student account) and her 2015 film The Rider for £2.49
‘Drawing In The Future’ by Laura Houlberg
‘Drawing In The Future’ by Laura Houlberg was the winner of Bertha DocHouse's Creative Response to Self-Isolation Competition #6 2021, 'Back to the Future.'
‘The etymology of "contract" is "to draw several objects together, to draw in." 2020 broke every social contract we thought we had. Big Tech continues to insidiously draw us into a new contract that requires us to always be online. And in response to all the chaos, I contracted into myself. It made me feel weird at first, but maybe a little cool down is just what we all need.
Winner of Bertha DocHouse's Creative Response to Self-Isolation Competition #6 2021, 'Back to the Future.'
Check out a time capsule of the screening & party for the film, hosted in a Google Sheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/195AiOPubMfHvEIfYSfAduLIV31YT_LCiSzm1NzFgRVA/edit#gid=1293633960
Laura Holberg
Also see this earlier desktop film from 5 years ago
Also see these threads for other ideas of films that could be explored in Lockdown/ with limited means:
Monsters (2010) Dir. Gareth Edwards
‘Gareth Edwards is known for his successes with "Godzilla" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Movie™", but many people still refer to his breakout independent film, "Monsters". Hear Gareth talk about how working in tools like Premiere Pro and After Effects enabled him to work quickly in multiple locations and deliver his film "Monsters". (Interview from 2010).’ Adobe CC
On Friday 1/5/20 we were joined by Gareth Edwards (Director - Star Wars - Rogue One, Godzilla, Monsters) - Live from Los Angeles - for an online guest seminar.
Recording is on Teams for UCW/ Weston College students to watch (again), please email us if you would like the link.
Other Interviews
Reviews
Can't Get you out of my Head - Adam Curtis (2021) - BBC iPlayer
Love, power, money, ghosts of empire, conspiracies, artificial intelligence – and You. An emotional history of the modern world by Adam Curtis.
‘Can't Get you out of my Head’ new film series by Adam Curtis now on iPlayer. Watch here
Trailer:
Interviews, Articles and Reviews
Leave your thoughts on the films in the comments below
Tiger King - TV Documentary Series (2020)
‘A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.’
One of the most watched documentaries (‘The Last Dance’ has since topped these viewing figures), if you’ve not seen it yet it is worth catching up on.
It sure is compelling viewing. Is it a good documentary ? Gregory Cameron in an essay on Medium argues it is not. What do you think?
Burma VJ (2008)
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma (Myanmar) , the acclaimed filmmaker Anders Østergaard combines original footage recorded by undercover video journalists from the Oslo-based publication, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), with a controversial reconstruction of scenes from the Saffron Revolution that launched in 2007. As explored by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Andrew Marshall wrote in his critical review of this riveting film, those elements of the film that are reconstructed challenge the viewer to make up their own minds on the role of the film-maker and artistic liberty in documenting what the Burmese state does not want documented. Read More - Cinema Politica
Cold War Steve Meets the Outside World
Cold War Steve Meets the Outside World airs Tonight, 24 November at 9pm on Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 11
'Famed for his collages that have been making Twitter a better place, Cold War Steve has an eye for the obscure. His artwork, Monty Python esque, nails a political moment every time with a laugh-out-loud funny hell-scape usually involving Boris Johnson in a state of duress and undress and world leaders rubbing shoulders with a whole host British TV stars including Jeremy Beadle and Eastenders’ Phil Mitchell.
Beyond Twitter, Cold War Steve has taken his work on a tour of the UK. Followed by a documentary crew, he jumped in his motorhome and visited Medway, Coventry, Liverpool and Bournemouth, showcasing four pieces out in the open. These Covid safe installations were free for everyone to visit and, well, caused a little bit of controversy along the way.' Shortlist
Gideon Soames of The Fast Show fame (Actor - Simon Day) deep dives into an artistic critique of the work of Cold War Steve.
’Cold War Steve meets The Outside World’ is now on Sky Arts. This is an additional 11 min extra.