Striking With Pride is a documentary that tells the true story that propelled the film Pride to success in 2014. The film won acclaim for its touching portrayal of the unlikely union between striking Welsh miners and queer young people in London, but the documentary shines a much-needed light on the real people behind it.
In 1984, Margaret Thatcher threatened to close the country’s mines, putting thousands of jobs at risk. As a result, there was a mass strike by the National Union of Miners across Britain. Striking With Pride tells the tale of the unexpected alliance that was born when a group of lesbian and gay people in London (known as Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners or LGSM) decided to start collecting money to aid the striking workers during the 1984 Pride march.
The director, Ashley Francis-Roy gave a short video introduction where he talked about being inspired by Pride’s release ten years ago and the 40th anniversary of the strikes to take a deeper look into the story. In doing so, he has successfully and effectively highlighted multiple issues faced by both groups and their lasting legacy.
The documentary uses a framing device to tie the story together and bring it into the modern day – a Welsh Drag Queen, Tayce, is telling the story to a group of children, who are full of youthful insight. While it would have worked fine as a more traditional documentary, this framing helped to highlight how the fights that were happening in 1984 are still happening now, with footage and photos from protests outside Drag Queen Story Hours. It’s a chilling reflection of the kind of hate faced by queer people 40 years ago.
Modern interviews and archival footage paint a comprehensive picture
In addition to this framing, the film made clever use of archival footage and photos to put the real people and places at the front and centre of the story.
This included footage and audio recordings of a number of famous speeches throughout the campaign, including Dai Donovan, a miner from the Dulais Valley, speaking at the Pits and Perverts fundraiser event. “You have worn our badge ‘Coal Not Dole’ and you know what harassment means, as we do. Now we will support you. It won’t change overnight, but now a hundred and forty thousand miners know … about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same.”
This is crucial to understanding the legacy of the miners’ strike and the LGSM involvement, something the documentary highlighted well. The support of LGSM resulted in the trade unions and the Labour Party incorporating gay and LGBTQ+ rights into their manifesto. This was a vital step towards equality in the UK’s queer history.
There were also many present-day interviews with people reflecting on the strikes, both from the mining community and from LGSM. This included Mike Jackson, cofounder of LGSM, and Dai Donovan, who spoke at the Pits and Perverts fundraising event. The interview subjects were extremely warm and generous with their time. Hearing them share their stories in their own words was touching and human.
The film also worked extremely hard to highlight and uplift voices that are often overshadowed, as well as show the context of the time. It heavily featured the Welsh women who were instrumental in organising fundraising and food drives for striking miners and their families, giving them space to tell their own stories in their own words. It also nodded to the lesbians who were overshadowed in their work and went on to form Lesbians Against Pit Closures.
As with any story featuring queer people in the 80s, the AIDS crisis was also touched upon. Many of the gay men speaking on camera discussed those they had lost as a result of the disease, particularly activist Mark Ashton, who was a co-founder of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners movement and general secretary of the Young Communist League and died in 1987, aged just 27.
I knew that Striking With Pride would affect me. I am a queer person who was born and raised in South Wales – not quite in a mining town but surrounded by them. Llanelli didn’t have its own colliery (there was one close by) but like every community in the region, it was affected by the strikes and eventual closures and was a deprived area when I was a child (and still is). I didn’t expect the magnitude to which this documentary would touch me and the people I went to see it at CSDF with. From start to finish, it is deeply moving and tells a vital, human love story of two disparate communities that found more in common than anyone expected.
It’s a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking, telling a 40-year-old story that remains relevant today as workers fight for their rights and violence against queer people soars.
Featured image credit: Sky Documentaries/Macrobert Arts Centre
Student journalist & freelance writer. Check out Quick Play, where I review video games that are 10 hours or less.
