Above: Owen Gower and Sinead Kirwan with Tim Hartley

RTS Wales Centre
Event Report: Still The Enemy Within
Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy, Thursday 17 April

 
Margaret Thatcher labelled them ‘the enemy within’.  The media dubbed them ‘Arthur’s Army’.  On the 30th anniversary of the miners' strike, Sinead Kirwan and Owen Gower (left), from Bad Bonobo Productions, explained how they produced Still the Enemy Within as an independent, crowd-funded film.  Together, they raised £75,000 through crowd-funding, to tell the hidden story of the people behind the longest national industrial dispute in British history.

Kirwan and Gower collaborated with Mike Simons, the author of two acclaimed books on the strike, and photographers John Sturrock and John Harris, who took some of the most iconic images of the strike.  During the talk, Gower reflected on how the broadcast news coverage at the time was criticised for appearing to be presented from the point of view of the police.  Citing what became known as 'The Battle of Orgreave', and having viewed over 2000 hours of BBC and ITN news material, Owen said, 'the BBC admitted that they re-edited the footage, so that it looked as if the miners had started the violence'.

The miners interviewed were drawn from coalfields across the UK, including Scotland and Nottingham, areas not greatly documented in the past.  Kirwan added that the film deliberately avoided interviews with the key players, such as Arthur Scargill.  ‘We deliberately kept to people on the front line,' she said.  However, both filmmakers defended the film's perspective, which gives a chronological account of the strike.  'It's more objective to fully report the miners' views and allow people to agree or disagree,' said Kirwan.

The completed film received its premiere at the Sheffield Documentary Festival in June.