*TRAILER* untouchable. RE: English Riots

[kristhompson]

So last year I went down to Ealing during the riots and collected the following footage:



For the last year I've been working on a film about why the riots happened, when most documentaries avoid this and pass it off as 'criminality, pure and simple'. Films such as 'Riot' and 'London's Burning' simply use it as a means to insight fear on its audience, and sex up the violence. In the case of 'Riot', quite literally. However in March 2012, an independent report verified the angle and approach of the film I was working on "A lack of support and opportunity for young people contributed to the outbreak of riots in England last summer". (BBC News 2012)

Below is the trailer for 'untouchable.' set for release on the 8th of August.

[jill]

Hey, just watched these. Won't ask how you got to be in the thick of it Whatever, well done for catching it on camera. Liked both shorts-great film making.

What I find depressing about the riots-or the mainstream (BBC etc) representation of the riots- is the construction of it all as apolitical-mindless. As in smashing the windows of Comet etc and making off with the big screen TV. The riots are constructed/represented as a a protest against exclusion ('I'm rioting in protest against being excluded from participating in consumerist society'),which ultimately re-affirms the values of the (consumerist) society from which they are excluded. That allows the riots to be constructed as 'criminality, pure and simple' doesn't it? I'm not intending to criticise what you're doing, because I think I get it and I'm on board. I'd just like to hear/see a message about dispossession that isn't so open to easy manipulation.

I hope you're not offended-you can take it or leave it -but I watched your Dodgy video, but didn't comment, because while I thought it was really impressive as film, I wasn't sure what I was to make of the Eden Lake type working class 'hoodies' kicking the shit out of the old guy. I think there's some 'missing link' somewhere in the narrative that connects what's happening on the streets (which I wouldn't deny) to why it's happening.

Have you read Owen Jones's Chavs? Or Nick Davies's Dark Heart? Both try to make sense of this politics-the dispossessed get easily constructed as 'the problem' because on one level-they actually are the 'problem', but the politics doesn't allow this voice and protest to be articulated in any other way.

www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-why-chavs-were-the-riots-scapegoats-7697824.html

Anyway, a bit heavy, but in short, I like what your doing film wise, visually and it the edit etc, you created something striking-but personally, I'd like to see a clearer articulation in the narrative of the political message behind it. Or maybe, I just missed the point-in which case, tell me what it is

[kristhompson]

Hi Jill,

Well you'll be pleased to know that Owen Jones' 'Chavs' served as one of my research materials. One quote from the book I used highlights the notion of dispossession.

"Over the last thirty years, the power of working-class people has been driven out of the workplace, the media and political establishment, and from society as a whole" (Jones, O Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class 2011 pg 247).

The film itself sees the protagonist fight against the peer pressure to riot. Only succumbing to it when he realises, despite his efforts there is nothing that he can do within his power to improve his quality of life. In a nut shell, the film attempts to contextulise the riots, and explores how rioters come to rationalise their choice to riot.

Within the report I mentioned, The panel's chairman Darra Singh said: "We must give everyone a stake in society. There are people 'bumping along the bottom', unable to change their lives. When people don't feel they have a reason to stay out of trouble, the consequences for communities can be devastating." (BBC 2012)

Other sources I referred to included John Heale's 'One Blood' and Ferdinand Mount's 'Mind the Gap'. 'Many young people talked about the riots as consequences of the anger and frustration felt at not seeing a future. Unable to see education, jobs and pensions on their horizon, some explained how they sought pleasure in consumerism. But while those they looked up to accessed and displayed these objects freely, for young people they were often out of reach'. (Heale, J One Blood pg 242-243)

Long before BBC issued the report that concluded the riots were a symtom of the lower class being disenfranchised, I had begun production on this film. During it's production, I too had grown tired of the perpetual myth spun by our media and the film industry.

When working on Simon Phillips' debut film 'Riot', I had the chance to speak to someone who had worked on Channel 4's docudrama 'London's Burning'. The docudrama was from the perspective of the Metropolitan Police, that oddly enough refused any involvement with the project. Meaning the whole project went on hearsay. London's Burning omits all motives of the rioters with the exception of greed and criminality, pure and simple. Whenever the rioters were shown, they had their hoods up, were on their blackberry doing something evil and were accompanied by ominous music.

The fella I spoke to (I wont mention his name, 'cos frankly he was a nice chap and I'd hate for him to get in trouble) was kind enough to have a sit down interview with me where he acknowledged my observations. He went further to say that director, Justin Hardy, wanted the scenes with the rioters to be similar to the gathering of the birds scene in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I had also noted to him that they seemed to glamourise the violence. He agreed and said that they had been asked to think of things that the rioters could do. "A lot of the stuff we did was because it frankly looked cool" he said.

So here was the film industry cashing in on the public and media's perception of the riots. With only documentaries approaching this issue at the cause, rather than the symtom itself, I pressed on with the film that I was making. It's no secret that I'm a massive Meadow's fan and adore the British realism movement and thus it seemed quite a fitting to apply that model of film making to my own.

Realism “is something of a catch-them-all term which conveys an idea of a text’s content, its concerns, and its visual style. Social realist texts are described as ‘gritty’ and ‘raw’ offering a ‘slice of life’ or a view of ‘life as it really is’. (Lay, S British Social Realsim pg 5)

This movement usually identifies with the lower classes. British realism was dubbed ‘kitchen-sink drama’, with the cramped heart of a council house serving as the primary setting. This division of the classes is a common theme in the movement, recently demonstrated in This Is England 2006 and Fish Tank 2008.

Stark comparisons can be drawn between contemporary Britain and the Britain portrayed in This Is England. Both are ruled by a conservative government and both have seen their respective riots. As Kermode suggests "…those parallels are powerfully made by the title, it’s ‘This IS England’, rather than ‘This WAS England". (Kermode, M The Culture Show)

The hoody culture of today can also be compared to the skinhead culture of the 80's. Both are a 'counter-culture' of a state that features a lack of opportunity. “These young Brits substituted traditional British society with their own version of a society” (Atkins, S Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups pg 308)

Back then Skinheads gave the working-class and unemployed a sense of identity and culture. “Confronted with a bleaker outlook on their future. The hard Mods appropriated a tougher exterior, consisting of a short, cropped hair, work boots, braces, Ben Sherman shirts, and Levis. This early Skinhead look was perceived as embracing a more strict masculine image because it was popular among the British working class”. (Areana & Arrigo The Terrorist Identity pg 96) Swap hoodies for the Ben Sherman shirts and Dr Martens for Nike trainers and then you have an image of history repeating.

What this film aims to convey is the message that we as a society should learn from the mistakes we seem to repeat and prevent them from happening again. The answer is not 'rubber bullets'. Although it is a short film, 'untouchable.' highlights the plethora of issues that gang up on someone from the lower classes and shows it's really not criminality, pure and simple.

I tip my hat to you for the observation within the Dodgy video. The idea behind that was what Mathew Preist from Dodgy summed up quite nicely: "Homelessness is the most visible sign that some of the most vulnerable in our society are being let down. And there seems a tendency at the moment to vilify these people — 'They’ve failed, they’ve done it to themselves' — therefore it’s okay for us to ignore them or even worse despise them and hurt them." Here are the lower class, passing the buck down so to speak. They are vilified by the middle and upper classes, and in turn, the homeless are vilified by all, including the lower class. Other themes, highlighted in 'untouchable.' are other possible contributing factors.

It is an on going thing with me. I like to highlight society issues within all my works, if possible. I recently made a film about when I was burgled. It's a dark comedy, however essentially it explores what would lead people to do such a thing. An examination of the lower class and unemployed. So in actuality the antagonists become the victims of the story. The film has just been submitted for BFI's London Film Festival, fingers crossed, here's the trailer.

[jill]

Fantastic post Kris.

I won't write much in reply just now-would like to reflect on what you've written and also re-watch your shorts and the new trailer you've posted.

Just quickly though, the anacdote about the Birds is really interesting. I haven't seen anything by Justin Hardy, but I looked him up on imdb just now and it seems a lot of his stuff plays with the Gothic. Done with some reflective irony, that imagery might be quite a powerful way of representing the riots, but it seems like what was envisaged just played up to/exploited the 'demons within', demonisation hysteria in the media coverage. 'Looks cool'? wtf.

Anyway, back later.

Edit: Just had a closer look at that imdb profile. London's Burning...'Using CCTV footage of the actual riots that bedevilled parts of England in the summer of 2011, allegedly triggered by the shooting of unarmed Mark Duggan, the film omits any real motives beyond greed and vandalism.....' Mmm, right

[kristhompson]

Cheers Jill,

Nice to know I'm not the only one making those observations. I'll post it on the site when it's released. I'm currently in talks about screening it at Open Ealing's next exhibition, which will also feature photography from someone who was out taking pictures that night.

[jill]

Sounds excellent. Sorry I haven't got back with a proper reply-things are a bit hectic at the moment-but I will do soon

[jill]

Good luck with the film Kris. Looks like you're doing interesting stuff. One of the things Nick Davies talks about in Dark Heart is how working class communities are turning on themselves. As in burglaries being within w/c communities etc. Not that it would be better if they were in m/c communities, but his point was that it generates a hating within communities that stops people thinking about the bigger picture.

I really hate all these nasty Chav Town type sites and posts around the internet. I used to live in a little w/c mining community in North Nottingham, which was sound-just normal families, with aspirations for their kids etc. Since the 1990s it's been sucked into Nott'm drug (and guns) culture. The reason for this is economic and social, but the perception-by smug Chav haters-is that it's because 'they' (yuk-'othering') are (genetically determined) 'low life.'

Anyway, sounds like your continuing the spirit of the social realist tradition in your work. Look forward to seeing the film.