Newsreel Collective

A RECORD OF THE STRIKE AT GRUNWICK IN 1977. The story of the continuing struggle at Grunwick’s by mainly Indian workers, from July 11th, 1977 until the struggle was lost. It shows the Special Patrol Group attack on the November 7th day of action, how the leadership of the struggle was taken out of the hands of the strike committee, how some of the strike leaders were disciplined by their own union for going on hunger strike outside the TUC in protest at the TUC’s inactivity, and how the post office workers were forced by their union to end their blacking of Grunwick mail. It also shows the beginnings of the similar struggle by immigrant workers at Garner’s Steak Houses in London.

This punk-infused documentary by the Newsreel Collective invites young working class Londoners to discuss their experiences of racism. First and second generation Black and Asian immigrants, as well as ex-National Front members, paint a detailed picture of discrimination in 1970s Britain. The film uses lo-fi animation, archive footage and a pulsating soundtrack to compare racial inequality in London to Britain's colonial 'divide and rule' policy, European fascism and the rise of Nazi Germany.

'Stand together!', a film on the "mass day of solidarity" on 11 July 1977, was made in 1977 for the Grunwick Strike Committee by the Newsreel Collective, of which Chris Thomas was a member, and members of the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT) and the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Hackney teenagers - black, white, gay and straight - talk sex, love and marriage in this compelling drama-documentary.

The film shows how community run childcare centers are a step toward liberation, by giving parents and children a chance to develop relationships with their peers and new relationships with each other. Focusing in the need for childcare and what good childcare could be, the film interviews women who express their desperation to find a safe environment for their children, and shows them taking positive action. Filming in daycare centers, it records what good parent-controlled daycare could mean for children as well as parents. Filmmakers Bonnie Friedman and Karen Mitnik said, "Being activist filmmakers, we were interested in showing everyday people taking control of their situation by utilizing empty community space to set up their own daycare centers. Using equipment shared amongst several projects within the Newsreel collective, we shot mostly on the streets of New York City with a Bolex and Nagra for sound."