Pride (2014)
Shown at Cinemes Texas from Friday July 15th http://www.cinemestexas.cat/index.php/news
Pride is a 2014 British LGBT-related historical comedy-drama film written by Stephen Beresford and directed by Matthew Warchus. It was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[3][4] where it won the Queer Palm award.[5] Writer Stephen Beresford said a stage musical adaptation involving director Matthew Warchus is being planned.[6]
The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and for the BAFTA for Best British Film, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Imelda Staunton and for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
During the UK Miners Strike of 1984-85, an unlikely ally showed its support for the miners. Led by Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer), the London chapter of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) started to collect money to help the union workers. Standing outside the “Gay is the Word” bookstore, Mark and his friends hold buckets and chant out the name of their organization. Some people donate, but others spit at them. Mark convinces his friends to persevere because the only people the homophobic British newspapers treated worse than gay people were the miners. “If anybody knows what this treatment feels like,” Mark says, “it’s us.”
To its detriment, “Pride” doesn’t provide more details on how Mark got the idea to support the miners as opposed to some other cause. According to Wikipedia, supporters of the strike were advised to partner with mining communities because the government had seized all union funds, making donations to the national miners union impossible. This explains LGSM’s numerous attempts to partner with communities, all of which are happy to team up until they hear the name of the organization. Through a misunderstanding about the group’s acronym (“I thought the L stood for London,” says Paddy Considine’s miner, Dai), LGSM hooks up with the Dalais Valley miners in South Wales. After meeting with the group, Dai invites them to attend a union meeting in his Welsh town.
Those joining Mark on the trip include Joe (George MacKay), a college student who is not out to his parents, and May-September couple Jonathan (Dominic West) and Gethin (Andrew Scott). Joe is our audience stand-in, a shy, inexperienced young man who meets Mark at the 1984 London Gay Pride parade. In most movies, Joe’s story would be the primary arc; here he’s just one of several stories that unfold in “Pride”. Welshman Gethin’s return to his home country after 16 years, and his relationship with polar opposite Jonathan, are given almost equal time. The mining town is represented by Considine’s Dai, Imelda Staunton’s Hefina and Bill Nighy’s Cliff, all of whom have their own moments to drive the plot. Mark’s own successes and struggles as the leader of LGSM are threaded throughout everyone else’s tales.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/21/matthew-warchus-pride-gay-activists-miners-strike
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/23/cannes-review-pride-gay-rights-miners-strike
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/18/solidarity-pride-film-british-tradition
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/18/pride-film-gay-miners-strike-campaign-reel-history
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/pride-review-social-history-doesn-t-get-more-fun-than-this-1.1925496
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29113849
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30728604
https://www.facebook.com/thepridemovie
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/29/together-alone
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pride-the-movie-jonathan-blake-the-campaigner-played-by-dominic-west-talks-about-hiv-the-miners-strike-and-gay-rights-10082744.html
http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-02-09/pride-film-wins-bafta-award-for-outstanding-debut/
http://www.cines-verdi.com/barcelona/files/2015/02/pride.pdf
http://www.filmclub.org/assets/pdf/Pride%20-%20Film%20guide.pdf