FILM
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The Queer Review
Pride
ride tells the story of the unlikely solidarity formed between the LGBT+ community and the mining community in 1984-5. It narrates the beginnings of LGSM (Lesbians and Gays support the Miners), co-founded by Mark Ashton, in aid of the miners striking against Margaret Thatcher’s pit closures. The film is incredibly well-researched. Stephen Beresford, the scriptwriter, based many of the characters on the individuals in a short documentary, filmed by LGSM, called All Out! Dancing in Dulais Pride. It shows that the foundation of the group lay in Mark Ashton’s sympathies towards the miners’ encounters with police brutality, an all too common experience for the gay community at the time. LGSM travelled directly to Onllwyn, a small town in Wales, where they were greeted by the miners with suspicion and a cold shoulder. Peace between the two groups slowly progresses and conciliation seems to be achieved when the
tear-jerking Bread and Roses is sung by the miners’ wives. It is a generally uplifting film, with Billy Bragg’s 'There is Power in a Union' and scenes of dancing highlighting a conciliatory atmosphere. It begs comparisons with films such as The Full Monty and Billy Elliot. However, Pride also talks of the members’ plight with AIDS and the attitudes towards the illness at the time, which Mark Ashton himself was a victim and died of in 1987, at the age of 26. The film reaches an emotional end when the miners lead the 1985 pride march in London. Pride is a rare and fantastic retelling of a period of history that has been covered extensively in British cinema. It does not fall into the trap of being an over-sentimentalised film that trivialises the issues of the time. Instead it immortalises the story of LGSM and the unlikely bond formed when two oppressed groups proudly held up each other’s banners. - JULIETTE REY
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