Belonging the Truth Behind the Headlines - award winning documentary

AWARDS & ACCOLADES:

• WINNER: Best Documentary Romford International Film Festival (announced 28th May)
• WINNER:  Constuir Cine Special Jury Prize: The London Labour International Film Festival
• WINNER Best Documentary: Cardiff International Film Festival 
• Shortlist: Best National Film: The London Labour International Film Festival
  
• Official Selection: The Wirral international Film Festival
• Official Selection: CSDocuFest (Stirling, Scotland)
  
• Official Selection, Market: Social World Film Festival (Italy)
  
• Official Selection: Constuir Cine, Argentina: International Documentary
  
• Official Selection: Workers Unite Film Festival New York, USA
  
  

ANOtHER GREAT REVIEW:

" ... this film’s focus upon human stories and its drive for truth afford the film its thoughtful, thoroughly informative and heartening light" Jackie Bergson, Scottish Left Review "a film with humanitarian force": Full Review 

Review: Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners: LGSM2014

It says a lot about Belonging that it opens with the following quotation from Edmund Burke: ‘The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.'

This is a powerful and much needed documentary that details disputes of three companies: Murdoch at Wapping in 1986; The Royal Mail privatisation in 2007 and the Ineos dispute at the Grangemouth refinery in 2013. Watching Belonging helps to clarify how neo-liberalism works and reinforces the lengths to which ruthless and unscrupulous employers will go to gain rewards for themselves and their shareholders at the expense of their employees. 

We learn that in Grangemouth, during the years it was run by BP (a state-owned asset), there was a spirit of community and camaraderie, there was just treatment of the workforce and management and unions worked collaboratively for the greater good of all. This consensus was deliberately broken down to create greater profits and shareholder return by creating a more compliant workforce through fear and deception, by changing the workplace culture from collectivism to individualism, for example by introducing personal contracts of employment. There are extensive interviews with Steve Deans who was victimised at Grangemouth (falsely accused of vote rigging) and vilified mercilessly by the tabloids. Solidarity greetings to Steve and family, big time!

Similar stories unfold in the interviews with workers from the Royal Mail privatisation fiasco and with what happened at Wapping between Murdoch and the print workers. 

It shows us how the media moguls distort what is really going on by vilifying the unions. It also shows how the police / state time and again side with the employer. Many of these revelations are seen for the first time through the documentaries extensive use of scouring through declassified government papers and the use of the Freedom of Information Act.

It is a documentary that, for me, will sit beside Still The Enemy Within and the Battle For Orgreave as an additional example of the destructiveness and violence of the capitalist system. The 0.1% are now richer that they have ever been. That wealth means power, not just money. That quote from Edmund Burke is so very true!  Mike Jackson, Secretary LGSM2014

Pride Film: The extraordinary and uplifting true story during the Miners strike

REVIEWS:

★★★★☆THIS passionate, pertinent and impressively thorough documentary from debut director Morag Livingstone takes a comprehensive look at the events that surrounded three industrial disputes. They involve three decades and three governments, but share a common thread of a threat to collectivism, democracy and sense of belonging, within trade unions in particular and the UK population as a whole.directed by Morag Livingstone in her first feature-length documentary, shines a spotlight on three different industrial disputes over three decades, and how the media, government and big business colluded to suppress human rights and democracy … MORE Ross Miller: Scottish National Newspaper Film Critic.

★★★☆☆  MIRO MAGAZINE  A broad and objective look at one of the UK’s most controversial questions, namely, where the true seat of power really lies in the UK ... ultimately it is an incredibly revealing watch. As we head closer and closer to the privatisation of services we can’t help but take for granted in the UK, it’s valuable to be equipped with as much information as possible and to take some inspiring advice from those that have actually made a difference.  Full Review