‘The Battle of Orgreave’ is the Mike Figgis film of the re-enactment of a pitch battle between striking miners and police at the Sheeld colliery Orgreave during the 1984-5 miners strike. The re-enactment was drawn from painstaking detail created from testimonies Deller and Artangel collated from those involved on the day as well as original footage. It was enacted by a mix of re-enactment societies (more used to re-enacting period pieces) local people from Orgreave and Sheffield and original participants from both sides of the battle. For the first time, the events from that
day were portrayed accurately, constructed out of the stories from the people that were there on the day.

I'm investigating how political art affects audience and this screening is part of that research. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session about experiences of the strike and/or the film chaired by Rod Dixon with special guests Phill Jupitus, Boff Whalley, (writer of ‘The Big Society’ ) and David Douglass (NUM rep at Orgreave, key participant in the film and re-enactment advisor). The floor will then be opened up to audience members. In particular we are hoping that we might attract members of the original audience from the fields around Orgreave in June 2001, who stood watching Jeremy Deller’s re-enactment. That audience was made up of a mix of local people, the families of the miners who were performing in the battle on the field, as well as art critics, and the friends and family who had been transported up from London to watch the event. Were you one of the people standing behind that rope on the field, watching the battle commence?

Although it was broadcast once on prime time TV, the film hasn’t widely been screened, so there is every possibility that many of the people attending on the day have not seen it. This is an opportunity for that audience to be able to see the film for free. This is also an opportunity to have their say in what the event meant, if anything, to them. The re-enactment has been widely commented on within the British and International art scene, however I want to hear from the local people who attended on the day, what they remember and what it all meant to them.

My research is ongoing so even if you can't attend the screening, I would be really interested in talking to you if you were involved or there on the day.

The screening is free - but you will need a ticket available from www.cityvarieties.co.uk
which can be emailed to you or downloaded from the site. (Getting tickets has been a bit fiddly apparently so if you've any problems - give me a shout  s.e.wishart@leeds.ac.uk)