1980s – part two

1982 – 1986

I had the opportunity to work on a film with money allocated to Four Corners by Channel 4 through the new film workshop agreement.

This grant didn’t cover any money to live on. I had to teach in The German School negotiating hours from one year to the next. That led to interesting comparisons between schooling, deschooling and working on my own.

I really enjoyed the chance to develop my own film. It happened between 1982 and 1985 with the help of Rick Mann and Hilary Dunn who supported me, introducing local young people to take photos and to develop them and leading them into script writing and acting out what they could bring up from

living in this area in Tower Hamlets.

IS THAT IT ?

16mm Colour 83 mins FOUR CORNERS

EAST END NEWS JANUARY 1986

A POWERFUL Film produced at Four Corners in Bethnal Green was included

In the recent London Film Festival.

IS THAT IT ? directed by Wilf Thust is a strong, even shocking film that arose from a series of workshops with local young people, some of whom just walkedk in off the street.

Though the startling central scenes focus on racism enacted during the kids’ own improvisations, Wilf Thust maintains that his original intention was not to make an anti-racist film as such, but simply to allow the kids to develop their own situation, pieces with minimum interference.

But finding the racism there, he had to deal with it. He regards the film as his personal response to the material.

For me the staircase in Bethnal Green Tube station became the image that holds the film together. But why ? The accident after a suspected bomb attack in 1943 leading to 173 people dying when falling over each other on the way down to this station created images

of horror in me. ( – Perhaps that is what my daughter called “my trauma” reappearing unconsciously, bringing me back to experiences I lived through when I was 4 years old and with 7 members of our extended family escaped from the Russians in overpacked goods trains and lived in bunkers. – ) Bringing this up was my story for the young people, a reminder on

Hitlers fascist horrors. I included graphics from Gustave Dore about East London and Henry Moore of people hiding and sleeping in Underground Stations.

The entrance to Bethnal Green Tube Station now.

In 2023 (!!) I heard on Channel 4 news that Tower Hamlets has the highest amount of people living in poverty in Britain.

In 1985 I collected data from Tower Hamlets Council which included payments between men and women and housing costs related to income and other injustices. It didn’t paint a rosy future for the teenagers joining our workshops.

But I made them aware of what it means to live at the bottom of the heap with the need to get out and up the ladder. How very sad that situations in that respect have not changed
nearly 40 years later!!

On 1st June 2023(!!) I heard in a Radio4 program called ‘Great Lives’ in which Tony Ben was speaking. I had admired him at the time in the 80s when he was asked if class distinctions are essential in society. His answer was: “I am not an egalitarian at all and believe that all people are different but what I object to in our society is the obstacle race that prevents people from what by their nature and origin and talent they could become. British society is from top to bottom riddled with prejudice about people who don’t use their words and their accent, not their origin, their family, their education.”

The graphics of my film and comments from adults in my film explain just that in different ways. (So do graphics here from Gustave Dore relating back to the 19th Century.)

I called my film ‘IS THAT IT ?’
because it reveals the UPS and DOWNS as I felt they were in the East End of London and in Britain at the time.

I compared it to living on a staircase, a vision I saw in a montage by John Heartfield in the 1930s. He produced posters as a warning against Hitler’s market economy and his racism.

When I heard Tony Benn led the Anti-War Coalition in 2001, even now I identified as a Conscientious Objector. I was proud of my English “Parents in Law” when they saw my film in the NFT at the London Film Festival 1986. They shared my belief!!!

In 1985 I finished my film, a time of high financial pressure in Four Corners. That had to do with growing expectations on the group from many people joining in but also financial support and fund raising options dwindling under Thatcher’s Government. The political LEFT lost County Hall, Tower Hamlets lost the Isle of Dogs and the Australian industrialist Murdoch destroyed the printing press there, sacking 6000 workers. We lived so near to these events. Much later I met Chris Reeves through MDRs and saw his film

“WAPPING The Workers Story”.

In 2016 (!!) Chris digitised all 6 parts of my film

‘IS THAT IT?’ :

scene 1 Young people in Bethnal Green invited to photograph, act and film.

scene 2 Differences between working class and middle class life prospects.

scene 3 Tube Disaster in Bethnal Green, seen as connected to Hitlers war.

scene 4 Boys aspirations in contrast to their future living in Tower Hamlets.

scene 5 How to handle racism and sexism openly displayed in sessions?

scene 6 A black youth killed in a police station. Why? Are we in control?

I questioned almost everything at that time. My films are riddled with questions.

I felt a need to talk, question and show the work of OTHERS and my own work to people of my generation. My mind was looking to do that in Four Corners. I loved the

idea to run

film seasons

a kind of binder between an audience and filmmakers.

So, for example did I ran a school season IN THE CLASSROOM and included films our workshop members had produced. I also run other season of 6 nights over 6 weeks like

FILM AND MUSIC, DONE FOR EFFECT (Animations),

VIOLENCE IN FILM. My greatest challenge was the AUSCHWITZ SEASON, connected to the Auschwitz Exhibition in the Borough.

I should mention other seasons – between many more – organised by members of the F. Corner group at the time between 1979 and 1986:

MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS F Corners Aug – Sep1979 Jo Davis and Mary Pat Leece

IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA

Half Moon Theatre Event Jan – Feb 1980 Mary Pat Leece and Jo Davis

A WOMAN, A FAMILY F Corners Nov – Dec 1981 Jo Davis and Mary Pat Leece

NATURAL DUTY F Corners Feb – Mar 1982 Jo Davis and Mary Pat Leece

PUBLIC MEMORY – PRIVATE MEMORY	Apr	– May	1983
Jo Davis and Mary Pat Leece
AMERICA -AMERICA F Corners	Jun	– July	1984
Ron Peck