Director of Strike: An Uncivil War, Daniel Gordon, tells us about his motivations for making his latest documentary 40 years after the miners’ strike.
Manchester-born Jewish filmmaker and BAFTA winner Daniel Gordon returns with his latest compelling documentary film, Strike: An Uncivil War, which tells the powerful story of the 1984/85 miners’ strike through personal testimonies, previously hidden government documents, and unseen archival footage. A self- funded project nearly eight years in the making, the documentary captures the poignant stories of the miners and their families whose lives were changed forever on 18th June 1984 at the Battle of Orgreave.
One miner featured in the documentary describes the strike as a ‘forgotten piece of history’. Daniel reflects on his motivations for telling the miners’ stories 40 years later: “After I finished making my film about Hillsborough, I felt like the Battle of Orgreave was something that really needed to be looked at; it was such a huge injustice that had never been addressed or rectified. It’s a big part of our country’s history and, for me, it changed Britain forever – not necessarily in a good way. It was about trying to capture that story, the brutality of the strike, and what happened to everyone afterwards. The aim of this film isn’t to get an enquiry into what happened, but I hope it is part of that process.”
It’s revealed in the film that the police and Home Office collaborated to develop an operational tactics manual for handling protests, significantly expanding police powers without any parliamentary oversight – all carried out in complete secrecy. Daniel shares the most shocking revelations he encountered during the research process: “I was staggered by the amount of preparation that the government had made before the strike. They’d been planning for it since the mid to late 70s in terms of curbing the power of the unions and provoking a strike. But the most shocking thing for me was the manual which wasn’t democratic at all, I think that revealed the much deeper issues.”
In addition to the miners and their families, the documentary features interviews with two police officers who were present at Orgreave on the day of the battle, Daniel explains the significance of including different perspectives: “It’s good to have that context to know where the police were coming from. They were effectively foot soldiers in an army, which a lot of them didn’t realise at the time. It’s important to hear from them to get their perspective on what they saw and experienced. It might not always be comfortable viewing for people, but it needed to be included.”
Daniel quickly discovered how much this documentary meant to the miners when he first interviewed them: “What I hadn’t factored in until we sat down was just how traumatised they still are. It was so raw when we were conducting the interviews, as it dawned on them that they’d never properly talked about it in any sort of depth or meaning – most of these men hadn’t addressed their trauma. Without sounding too corny, it was a real privilege to just sit and listen to that kind of candid recollection.”
The feedback received from the miners has been overwhelmingly positive, as Daniel explains: “These men don’t necessarily know each other as they’re from all across the country, but the most common bit of feedback from pretty much every single one of them is that they felt cleansed, and that really sticks with me. I did a couple of screenings before public release with a few of the miners, and when I saw their reactions – they couldn’t even speak afterwards – I knew that we’d got it right. They just wanted to be represented and have their voices heard.”
Daniel explained why the project had to be a self-funded project: “We wanted to make the film that we wanted to and there was no interference from other voices. You hear a lot of ‘you can’t say that’ or ‘you need to take that out’ when working with a commissioner or broadcaster but we got to make our film. Don’t get me wrong, it was tough! We had to rely
on people working for nothing – or very basic costs – and there were a lot of favours called
in from people I’ve worked with over the last 25 years. The only reason it got made is simply because people really believed in telling these people’s stories. But self-funding definitely isn’t something I’d recommend every time!”
Strike: An Uncivil War is available now to stream on Netflix.