A moment to talk

Prog. 1 – GEC Telecommunication factory, Coventry. A group of working women sit and talk on the edge of their production line. At first they talk about changes in their techniques of production, then after we have seen them at work, they talk about changing views of marriage. There is an extraordinary diversity of opinion among them—ranging from the divorcee who would not advocate marriage for anyone, to the youngest whose parents were divorced when she was 11, and who desperately seeks marriage as a means of finding security…Prog. 2 –Strikers at the Laurence Scott engineering factory, Manchester.These men and women have been on strike for seven months. On the picket line a group of men talk bitterly about the tactics of the employer and the failure of their Union to support them.Then back at the strike headquarters men and women talk about the human and political effects of the strike and how leaders move further away form them as they go “up the ladder” of power.At the end we see the strike broken—one week after the conversation was filmed.These films are as nearly “unmediated” as you can get: there is no intervention by the film maker except in editing—and in the editing room representatives of the group are present with transcripts of what was said. All members of the group see all the “rushes”, all are involved in the editorial decision-making. The first series (from which these examples are taken) has been followed by a second series of nine programmes at present editing. The film editor, Greg Miller, will also be present at the screening.