NEWS

Tull Stories to release miners’ strike doc ‘Strike: An Uncivil War’ in UK-Ireland (exclusive)

BY MONA TABBARA 3 JUNE 2024

SOURCE: JOHN HARRIS_REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

‘STRIKE - AN UNCIVIL WAR’

Tull Stories will release Daniel Gordon’s documentary feature Strike: An Uncivil War in the UK and Ireland.

The doc tells the story of the year-long miners’ strike of 1984/85 – considered one of the UK’s most violent and divisive industrial disputes. The film pays particular focus to the bloody Battle of Orgreave, which took place on June 18, 1984. The media subsequently appeared to lay blame for the violence at the feet of the strikers, with Gordon’s feature aiming to overturn this.

The film also explores Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s unrelenting mission to break the role of unions in British working class society. Preview screenings will play on June 18 to chime with the 40th anniversary of the battle, following its Sheffield Docfest premiere. The film’s general theatrical release is on June 21.

Strike: An Uncivil War was made with the support of the BFI Doc Society Fund awarding National Lottery funding. It is produced through Embankment Films’ unscripted division, alongside Sheffield-based outfit VeryMuchSo.

“Strike: An Uncivil War is a film I have been wanting to make for over a decade now,” said Gordon. “My mum grew up in a mining village in south Yorkshire, and I grew up very aware of the strength of that community. I turned 12 during the strike and to see the destruction brought on by it was something I could only observe on television and through a child’s lens, but over the years I have always been determined to revisit this period and go beyond the lazy headlines and official narrative of the time.

“After making Hillsborough, I knew that Strike and in particular The Battle of Orgreave was next. There are so many similarities with Hillsborough and Orgreave – the cover up, the shifting of blame by the government and other instruments of the state.”

MetFilm Distribution is no longer attached to the project, as previously reported.