On the 10th of March, Rialto and VU Pride - the network for and by LGBTQIA+ students and employees of the university - join forces again. This time we'll screen the 2014 film Pride at Rialto VU.
Pride
Britain, 1984: Margaret Thatcher, nicknamed The Iron Lady, wants to rigorously close a whole series of mines in the north of England, which will result in high unemployment. The miners go on strike. Support comes from an unexpected quarter: the action group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) declares its solidarity and decides to raise money. LGSM front man Mark Ashton convinces his friends to join in because, he says, miners are treated even worse than gays in the homophobic British press. Problem: the union is not open to support from that quarter. But the campaigners are resourceful.
If there is one thing British cinema excels at, it is films in which a serious social issue is dealt with light-heartedly and with humour without detracting from the importance of that issue. Think of films like Billy Elliot and The Full Monty. Pride also fits into this category. It earned director Matthew Warchus several film awards, including The Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.
Introduction (English spoken)
Roel van den Oever will briefly introduce the movie. Topics to be addressed include: queer activism as single issue versus collectivist politics; the (im)possibility of historically correct representation in film; and queer community building through cinema. Dr. Roel van den Oever is assistant professor of English literature at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is the author of Mama’s Boy: Momism and Homophobia in Postwar American Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and co-editor of Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler (Amsterdam UP, 2021).
