Endre Aczel: The Political and Historical Background of "The Battle of Orgreave"

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Endre Aczel: The Political and Historical Background of "The Battle of Orgreave"

2013. február 13., 18:00
Jeremy Deller: The Battle of Orgreave (An Injury to One is an Injury to All), 2001
Video, 62 minutes, directed by Mike Figgis
Co-Commissioned by Artangel And Channel 4, The Artangel Collection

"A piece of social history re-lived, not re-enacted"
(Michael Morris, Co-Director of Artangel)

The British miners’ strike of 1984 started off in response to the Thatcher government’s policy of spending cuts. The dispute between the government and miners trying to stave off pit closures dragged on for more than a year. On 18 June 1984, the coking plant in the village of Orgreave was the scene of the most serious clashes. The battle started on a field near the plant and came to a head with a mounted police charge which swept through the village.

Deller’s film traces the event with the help of extras and contemporary participants. He asked the miners and police who fought each other at the time to replay the events of sixteen years previously. Then he filmed the "battle". The 800-strong cast was directed by Howard Giles, a historical reconstruction expert and former head of special events for English Heritage.

Mike Figgis directed The Battle of Orgreave for Artangel Media and Channel 4, and the film was broadcast once, on 20 October 2002. The makers of the film edited dramatic photographs of the actual 1984 events and moving personal testimonies into the re-enacted scenes shot in 2001.

Deller’s film focuses on an event that marked the end of industrial society in his country, a dramatic historical moment whose effects were to ripple through the world.