Battle of Orgreave
Where: , The Corner House, 29 Forman Street, Nottingham NG1 4AA
Date(s): 18/10/04
Time(s): 8pm
Cost: Free- however, please phone the NOW Festival on 0115 915 8626 to book your tickets for this event, making sure to state 'Battle of Orgreave' followed by your name, address, telephone number and how many tickets you wish to book (please note- x4 tickets per booking/x15 tickets per educational establishment booking).
In 1984, the National Union of Mineworkers went on strike. The dispute lasted for a year, and was the most bitterly fought since the general strike of 1926. On the 18th of June 1984, one of the strike's most violent confrontations began in a field near to the Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire and culminated in a cavalry charge by mounted police through the village itself.
Jeremy Deller, in conjuction with Artangel, recently re-enacted the events of that day. The participants combined members of historical re-enactment societies from all over Britain with local people from the mining communities of South Yorkshire, many of whom were present on the field in 1984. Deller, who has been nominated for the 2004 Turner Prize, invited acclaimed director Mike Figgis to film this event: this cinematic "recreation of what was, essentially, chaos", to use Dellers words, is a shocking and stark account of one of Margaret Thatcher's Britain's formative moments that is sure to resonate with Nottingham's own experience of pit closure, heavy policing and flying pickets.
Howard Giles, director of the re-enactment, will introduce this special screening. Howard works for Event Plan, who arrange and co-ordinate re-enactors/performers representing virtually every historical era for living history displays, battle re-enactments, multi-era "spectaculars", documentaries and films.
