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Northern Film School celebrates prestigious award nomination
Coke Not Coal, written by Tony Goodwin, an ex-miner and poet, has been shortlisted for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s 2017 Research in Film Awards in the Innovation Award category.
The film stars Hull actor and theatre company director, Barrie Rutter OBE. It re-visits the day of Margaret Thatcher’s state funeral and the way it was celebrated by residents of ‘Oldthorpe’ – and uses the event to reflect, in Goodwin’s blisteringly caustic screenplay, on the current landscape of the lost mining communities.
Coke Not Coal is one of eight short films collectively named Mining the Memories, produced by teams of South Yorkshire residents with students, graduates and staff at the Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett University, in 2016. Using the latest technology available at the University, the films were shot on location in and around South and West Yorkshire.
Before filmmaking began, the participants were led through a series of workshops by screenwriting lecturers from the Northern Film School, exploring what the strike meant to them and the long-term consequences for themselves and their communities. They then worked on shaping these ideas into scripts.
The workshops resulted in five short dramas - Blacker than Black, A Piece of Coal, Respect, She Had a Dream and Coke Not Coal. Two documentaries were also made: one based on the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign and another made with the Goldthorpe Community Shop. A final film, an animation, was created entitled, ‘The Enemy Within?’ All pieces were written by either ex-miners, miners’ wives or their daughters. The films were premiered at the 2016 Leeds International Film Festival.
The Mining the Memories series formed part of the CINAGE project, which began in 2013 with the aim of exploring the EU’s recommendations for healthy, active ageing and increasing the reflection of the needs and concerns of older people in contemporary cinema.
Coke Not Coal’s writer, Tony Goodwin, commented: “I have always written, long before Mining the Memories rolled into town. I draw very much from my life experiences, being a working class man, boy, and former coalface worker. The film was written one Saturday night, and I originally intended it to be a radio play.”
Jennifer Granville, Principal Lecturer in the Northern Film School and CINAGE Project Leader, commented: “Coke Not Coal is part of an ambitious research project carried out by the Northern Film School, which produced five live action dramas, an animation and two documentaries, all authored by members of ex-mining communities who were invited to examine their experience of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike and the effect on their lives today, via the medium of filmmaking. Being nominated for this AHRC Award for Coke Not Coal is very exciting for all of us who were involved in the project, as all the individual films were developed out of experimental, collaborative methodologies and the success of one film is truly a success for them all.”
Hundreds of films were submitted for the Research in Film Awards this year and the overall winner for each category, who will receive £2,000 towards their filmmaking, will be announced at a special ceremony at 195 Piccadilly in London, home of BAFTA, on 9 November.
Launched in 2015, the Research in Film Awards celebrate short films, up to 30 minutes long, that have been made about the arts and humanities and their influence on our lives.
There are five categories in total with four of them aimed at the research community and one open to the public.
Mike Collins, Head of Communications at the Arts and Humanities Research Council, said: "The standard of filmmaking in this year's Research in Film Awards has been exceptionally high and the range of themes covered span the whole breadth of arts and humanities subjects.
"While watching the films I was impressed by the careful attention to detail and rich storytelling that the filmmakers had used to engage their audiences. The quality of the shortlisted films further demonstrates the endless potential of using film as a way to communicate and engage people with academic research. Above all, the shortlist showcases the art of filmmaking as a way of helping us to understand the world that we live in today."
The winning films will be shared on the Arts and Humanities Research Council website and YouTube channel. On 9 November you’ll be able to follow the fortunes of the shortlisted films on Twitter via the hashtag #RIFA2017.