Due to the Covid-19 crisis and the cancellation of the Tolpuddle Festival in Dorset, the 2020 Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival is taking place entirely online. The screenings are all free and can be viewed from anywhere in the world.
Friday July 17th:
To join a screening simple click on the link about 5 minutes before the screening is due to start. Due to screen size we advise you watch the films on a computer rather than a phone or tablet.
Each feature-length screening will be preceded by screenings of short films entered into the Small Axe Film Competition and each screening will be followed by an online discussion. In the case of the UK documentaries representatives of the film-makers and/or activists will join us for the discussion.
FRIDAY JULY 17th
Starting with the thought of political theorist Hannah Arendt, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian explores what freedom could mean today? The result is a joyful potpourri of ideas and alternative thinking, propelled by a thrilling soundtrack of Ethiopian hip hop. Asserting that the need for change has never been more urgent, I Am (Not) a Monster is an ambitious yet accessible activist outcry: ‘knowledge is power’…
Documentary | David Archibald, Carl Lavery | United Kingdom | 17:35 Glasgow Glam Rock Dialogues channel the spirits of David Bowie, Suzi Quatro and Karl Mark to debate the life and legacy of Guy Debord, theoretical leader of the Paris-based Situationist International. Look out your feather boa!
Documentary | Constantine Gras, Natasha Langridge | United Kingdom | 10:05 Natahsa Langridge, writer and performer, lives on the Wornington Green Estate in North Kensington. We follow her across a day during the COVID19 lockdown as she delivers food or checks on vulnerable, self-isolating friends and contemplates visiting her mother who has been diagnosed with cancer.
Directed by John Ford and based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the film tells the story of the Joads who, after losing their Oklahoma farm during the Great Depression in the 1930s, become migrant workers and end up in California. One of the great films of the depression era.
Fiction | Chris White | United Kingdom | 04:38 What does it take to break a world record? Grit, determination, and creative thinking – as two young girls discover. More Details
Fiction | Nikola Duravcevic | United States | 14:49 Alone in New York, Somali rideshare driver Abdi begins his nightshift with the news of a tragedy back home. Poetic and lyrical, BROOKLYN PARK is a modern-day immigrant tale that explores alienation, grief, and transcendence. More Details
The phenomenon of growing nostalgia in Berlin for the communist GDR is revealed in this fascinating new documentary, which raises important questions about the relationship between competitive, individualist, Western capitalism, mental health and happiness.
Documentary (Student) | Anayis Der Hakopian | United Kingdom | 03:45 This short animation follows a real testimony during the “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs” period in UK History. In this short we follow Delphine who has come to London when her child unexpectedly falls Ill. More Details
Documentary (Student) | Sam Jones | United Kingdom | 08:44 An individual project reflecting from inside looking out during lockdown, giving a voice to Chinese nationals as they reflect on how England has portrayed them during this time. More Details
A documentary on one of the greatest British figures of the past century, trades union leader Jack Jones. He attacked poverty, fascism, worker exploitation and pensioner neglect with such ferocity he was voted The Most Powerful Man in Britain.
Documentary (Student) | Daryl Brown | Not Specified | 08:29 An experimental documentary that uses archival footage to complicate the notion of violence and its relationship to Black America. More Details
Documentary (Student) | Nigel Smith | United Kingdom | 01:29 Lesley arrives for a minor procedure when something unexpected happens. More Details
Documentary (Student) | Joseph Scott | Ireland | 06:55 An observational piece following the picket line at Queen’s University Belfast, as the UCU and the UCEA, continue to have their prolonged stalemate on better pay and pension benefits. More Details
Two fascinating films about the Durham Miner’s Gala. The first is a ‘Free Cinema’ short film, Gala Day, which was made in 1963. The second is a 2019 feature-length documentary from the team who brought you, Dennis Skinner: Nature of the Beast.
Together they provide an insightful perspective on the last 50 years of the labour movement.
1999. The first feature of the French Ken Loach, Laurent Cantet. This is a moving examination of class loyalty and a fine example of “making the personal political”.
Fiction | Orson Nava | United Kingdom | 19:00 Sylvan and Mia are the perfect couple; in love, caring and supportive of each other, and with a shared vision of what Britain could be with Sylvan as it’s first black Prime Minister. But a secret from his street-boy past could both destroy their dreams and devastate their marriage. More Details
Fiction | Yasin masoudi | Iran, Islamic Republic of | 01:03 Corona is a kind of war, this time in silence … More Details
Fiction | Evan Skladany | United States | 01:00 Now there’s a revolutionary way to socialize without the need for others! MeMore is a therapeutic hallucinogen that generates multiple, interactive clonegrams you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home, or while safely navigating public spaces. Enjoy more, live more, be more… with MeMore!* More Details
A brand new archive, documentary telling the story of the infamous Wapping dispute between Rupert Murdoch and the print unions that along with the ’84 Miner’s Strike, defined the Thatcher years for the trade union movement.
Documentary | Sam Meech | United Kingdom | 15:00 A documentary looking at the displacement of knitting factories in Manchester. For over 30 years, Crusader Mill in Manchester was occupied by textile businesses run by the South Asian community. In 2017, following the purchase of the building by developers Capital & Centric, these businesses were forced to move out. Though the developers claim to be ‘saving’ the industrial heritage of Manchester, and creating a ‘community’ the voices of the South Asian textile community who actually worked in the mill have been missing from the narrative. More Details
A new documentary history of the dismantling and privatisation of the Health Service. In this Post-Covid world it is vital that anyone who wants to save the NHS as a publicly owned and funded institution must see this film.
Fiction | John Mossman | United States | 06:08 When a hospital runs out of respirators, the administrators face an ethical dilemma. More Details
Fiction | Anthony von Seck | Canada | 17:20 Raymond Laissier, a high-profile intelligence operative sits down with Charley Underwood, a conspiracy theorist, to retrieve his personal handbook filled with top secret information. Hoping to have his sensitive material safely back in hand, a simple exchange of property becomes a shocking re-evaluation of Ray’s destructive occupation. More Details
Blacklisting in the UK construction industry impacted thousands of workers who were labelled ‘troublemakers’ for speaking out and secretively denied employment. Activists uncovered alarming links between workplace blacklisting and undercover policing. SOLIDARITY follows meetings between activists and law students, brought together for the film, revealing the determination of a community working together to find a route to justice.
Documentary | United Kingdom | 04:18 Three in four of the world’s new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals. Responsible for nearly three million deaths a year, these diseases are largely transmitted through trading wildlife (legally and illegally) and factory farming. It’s time to make the connection between eating meat and the decimation of wildlife, antibiotic resistance and disease outbreak. More Details
All film is political. But all films are not equal. The Small Axe Short Film Awards is a competition for films that directly address social and political issues. We accept everything – from direct polemic, to experimental film, from original fiction to observational documentary. We want opinion, analysis, personal stories, ideology, vision and fresh perspectives. Challenge, explore, celebrate, discuss… In short, any film that you feel is radical is welcome; as long as it is short (under 30 minutes)
Young Film (Made by filmmakers under 18) | Lovro Hostić, Ivona Štefica Mihanović | Croatia | 03:27 George is a boy who is different from the others. While he enjoys expressing his individuality, he finds himself being forced to conform. His usual colorfulness is replaced with shades of black. Will he break free from the norm or will he remain an average citizen?
Young Film (Made by filmmakers under 18) | Niki Paleka, Aleta Franić, Dora Pecigoš, Jan Novak Vukašinović, Ursula Pavić, Noa Zelenko | Croatia | 05:01 Kids in the Frooom! film school wrote, filmed and acted in their own story called Duel. Since the beginning of history this sort of dispute solving was popular – from swords to florets, from muskets to pistols. Even today this is not a yet abandoned practice to solve quarrels.
Young Film (Made by filmmakers under 18), Young Film (Made by filmmakers under 18) | Andrew Wang | United States | 02:52 A “scary” horror scene filled with horror stereotypes, with a different kind of “fear”
Young Film (Made by filmmakers under 18), Young Film (Made by filmmakers under 18) | Patricia Hayes, Marc Hayes | Not Specified | 00:40 The COVID scars go beyond the skin.
Documentary | Efi Amanatidou | Not Specified | 20:28 The video intends to function as a call for awakening amidst the disaster we are living and impels towards the acceptance of responsibility in terms of the life stance each one of us employs; aiming to make use of the current coronavirus crisis as an occasion for reflection – in order to prevent the reduction of our realities and societies into a dystopia.
Documentary (Student) | Julian Liby | United States | 23:39 What started as a project to interview conspiracy theorists about the COVID-19 pandemic, became an opportunity to glean information about the psychological and personality characteristics that make conspiracy theorists tick, and whether or not the perpetuation of such theories on social media can be detrimental to us.
Fiction | Samara Sagynbaeva | Kyrgyzstan | 20:00 An elderly and honest Bolot works as a heating man at a village school. When the coal in his house finishes, his wife persuades him to steal coal from the school, despite the school’s small supply.
Fiction (Student) | Caleb Stevens | United States | 02:19 A quarantine short film.
Fiction (Student) | Anayis N. Der Hakopian | United Kingdom | 04:07 A vagabond suicidal fox decides to crash an urban party where he meets the Vixen of his dreams.
Fiction (Student) | Lili Zahavi | Germany | 09:23 Emil is auditioning for a main part in a huge international film production. Playing a homosexual, drug-addicted SS-Officer he needs to break up from his lover shortly before the battle of Stalingrad. But of all people Oskar, his Ex-Girlfriend’s new boyfriend, happens to read the counterpart and threatens Emil’s chances of getting the part.
Fiction (Student) | Josia Brezing | Germany | 01:12 During a nocturnal car drive in search of sex, the protagonist meets a trans prostitute. But instead of releasing him from his desires, she informs him together with a leather fetish boy about his irresponsibility regarding the climate change.
Fiction (Student) | Louis Linsey | United Kingdom | 14:44 A true story set in 1969 Rochdale, England, about the first person to come forward against the politician Cyril Smith.
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