SESSION 119, ILLEGAL _CINEMA

Screening of Road by Alan Clarke (1987, 67 min), proposed by Rafael Álvarez, followed by a discussion.

Amongst the less well-known figures of British social realism – usually associated with names like Mike Leigh or Ken Loach – we find Alan Clarke, a radical filmmaker who turned British public television into a space of political and social confrontation, repeatedly coming up against conservative censorship and the institutional machinery of Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom.

Clarke’s refusal to soften his portrayal of social violence has bequeathed us this harsh documentary of the NO FUTURE movement.

The film unfolds along a single street in the north of England, portraying the everyday life and consequences resulting from the despoilment of the working class: chronic unemployment, alcoholism and generational desperation. Countering the official narrative of prosperity, Alan Clarke shows the entrails of a broken community that no longer hopes for redemption.

Rafael Álvarez (Barcelona, 1999) lives in Bilbao and is a cofounder of the film club Zine de Barrio. He is passionately interested in cinema and music, and is involved in curating and promoting cultural events linked to both fields.