Oh Jeremy Corbyn Screening At Tolpuddle To Go Ahead…
Except it never did… because on the weekend of the festival a storm hit the UK and on the morning of Saturday 15th July the entire festival was cancelled due to high winds and rain.
Due to the censorship by the secretary of SWTUC of the film, Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival has withdrawn from this year’s Martyr’s Festival in Tolpuddle.
However, we are delighted to be able to tell you that despite our original venue cancelling on us, we have found a way to screen film in Tolpuddle during this year’s Tolpuddle Festival.
As previously announced the film will be screened at 14.00 on Saturday 15th July.
But in an attempt to prevent further disruption to the screening we will not be divulging any details about the arrangements for the screening that we have made.
If you book a ticket for the screening you should simply gather at the Martyr’s Statue in front of the main stage at 13.30 on Saturday 15th July, and you will be guided to the screening.
Tickets are free but must be booked in advance here.
There are 50 seats available for those attending the Martyr’s Festival but there are more seats available if you live locally in West Dorset and would like to attend the screening.
If you do live locally in West Dorset please do NOT book a seat on Eventbrite but instead email us directly at [email protected]
If you don’t manage to get a ticket but would like to show your solidarity with us and your support for the screening, please gather with us anyway at the Martyr’s Statue in front of the main stage at 13.30 on Saturday 15th July.
Still hoping to see you there.
Chris Jury & Reuben Irving
Co-founders of Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
Venue cancels screening of a banned film at Tolpuddle Martyr’s Festival 2023
Due to the censorship by the secretary of SWTUC of the film, Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival has withdrawn from this year’s Martyr’s Festival in Tolpuddle.
However, we had arranged to screen the banned film at Tolpuddle in Tolpuddle Village Hall at 14.00 on Saturday 15th July.
Today we received a letter from the Trustees of the Village Hall cancelling our booking.
We have sent an Open Letter to the Trustees of the Village Hall asking them to reconsider and offering to run a private screening of the film for them - so convinced are we that there is no legitimate reason to censor and ban this film. You can read the open letter here.
We are also now exploring if there is any equipment and spaces we could use to screen the film outside in a public place in Tolpuddle on that Saturday.
If anyone has knowledge of or access to equipment that would allow us to screen the film outdoors please do get in touch at [email protected]
Still hoping to see you there.
Chris Jury & Reuben Irving
Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
The following groups and institutions are hoping to co-present the screening with us:
Jewish Voice for Labour, Mendip and Bridgwater Unite Community Branch, Mendip and Bridgwater Trade Council , UNITE Community Dorset Branch , Dorset Trades Council, Cambridge Trades Council, UCU Eastern & Home Counties Regional Committee , UCU Cambridge Regional College Branch, North West Region UNITE the UNION, Lancashire Association of Trades Union Councils, Norwich & District Trades Union Council , Banner Theatre, Exeter and District Trades Council, Rebel Arts, Sew Angry, Artists Union of England, Artists Mutual Mentoring, Bath TUC, Bristol & Glos Area Unite Community, Worcester Trade Union Council, Brent Trades Council, Bath and North East Somerset Branch of Unison, Sheffield Left, Holmfirth Film Festival, Rossendale and Darwen People’s Assembly, London Morning Star readers and supporters group, Marx Memorial Library, Islington TUC, Greater Manchester UNITE Community Branch, Norwich and District Trades Council, Rochdale Trades Council, Bolton Socialist Club, Northampton Trades Union Council, CWU SLSNH Branch, Croydon TUC, Wolverhampton, Bilston and District TUC , Foxie & UK Punk-Folk band Bleeding Hearts, Unite Community Beds and Herts, Reel News, Unite the Union Hackney & Islington Community Branch , Unite the Union EM/LN43 Central Lincolnshire Branch, Bristol Radical History Group , Red Shoes Poster Archive, Merton & Sutton TUC, Calderdale Trades Council , South London Surrey North Hampshire Branch (CWU), MERTON & SUTTON TUC , Hillingdon TUC, RMT Piccadilly and District Branch, Hillingdon/Hounslow Unite Community Branch, Ealing TUC, Norwich & District TUC, UNISON Coventry City Branch, Ceredigion Constituency Labour Party.
Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival Withdraw from Tolpuddle Martyr’s Festival 2023
SWTUC, the organisers of the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival, have received threats of serious disruption to the festival by factions unhappy that the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival has chosen to screen the film, Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, made by Platform Films. It is important to understand that the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival is a separate corporate entity from the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and is self-supporting through sponsorship and donations and is run by volunteers who are not involved in running the Martyrs’ Festival nor subject to the authority or line-management of the festival. The Martyrs’ Festival merely provides us with a rent-free space to park the Vintage Mobile Cinema on the festival site and access to free electricity. Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, is a feature-length documentary film of a high professional standard and is calm and measured in tone and based on the personal testimony of those interviewed and on credible, researched evidence. The film is an important historical document that explores the Corbyn phenomenon (and the attack on Corbyn and his supporters from within the Labour Party), from a point of view that is never seen in the mainstream media. It is true that the film has a point of view that not everyone will agree with, but so do all the films we show, indeed, that is the point of showing them! We are unwilling to run this year’s Radical Film Festival without the film in the programme but the Martyrs’ Festival are facing the possibility of serious disruption to the whole festival if we screen this film that to be fair, they did not choose… and the threats of disruption obviously raise concerns about the danger of damage to the Vintage Mobile Cinema itself. Therefore, after much soul-searching we have decided that the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival will withdraw completely from this year’s Martyrs’ Festival. Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, is being shown around the country and we are confident that everyone who is interested will have an opportunity to see the film. Further details can be found on Platform Films Facebook Page We recognise that the organisers of the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival were put in a difficult situation by the pressure external factions placed on them and we hope to return to Tolpuddle in 2024, which will be the tenth anniversary of Film @ Tolpuddle. Thank you for your support. We hope to be back next year. Chris Jury & Reuben Irving
The TRFF 2023 Cancelled Programme
The police raping and murdering; energy companies profiteering from a European war; a right wing Press with no moral compass spreading lies and subverting democracy; the City of London acting as the global centre for the washing of criminal money and for international oligarchs to evade tax; the Tory government giving their mates billions for non-existent PPE; the Labour Party launching a war on it’s own members rather than fighting the Tories; Prime Ministers lying to parliament and to voters being normalised and defended; Corporate bosses getting billions in bonuses while nurses and teachers in full-time work have to use food banks to feed their families. This not just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel, this is an entire global system that is…
ROTTEN TO THE CORE!
The Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival and Small Axe short film competition 2023 will run from 16.00 on Friday 14th July to 13.30 on Sunday 16th in the Vintage Mobile Cinema as part of the annual Tolpuddle Festival one of the premiere cultural events in the UK trade union calendar.
Friday 14th July 16.35 Geneva Oil At any Price 18.07 Inside Job 20.09 Wag the Dog Saturday 15th July 10:35 The Spider’s Web 12:33 Rupert Murdoch’s Scandal 14:13 The War You Don’t See 16:28 Corrupt Cops: What the Met knew 17:33 Oh Jeremy Corbyn - The Big Lie Sunday 16th July 10.00-13.30 Small Axe Awards
tolpuddleradicalfilm.org.uk 