I received an alert from Shooting People regarding Penny Woolcock’s latest film, 1 Day, which rolls out across 84 UK cinemas this Friday. It’s a provocative drama based around gang life in inner city Birmingham, and in which Woolcock decided many of the cast should, where possible, come from within the realities that the film portrays.
So far so good. But then arrives the time to exhibit of the movie, which is a deep and involved process in any circumstance, but even more so when tackling such potentially far-reaching subjects. Having gone through months of consultation and achieving a 15 certificate from the BBFC you’d think that all the boxes had been ticked and audiences nationwide could sit down to make up their own minds about the movie (we do live in a democracy, after all).
Wrong.
In all of the planned screening venues across the region the West Midlands police warned the owners against screening the film. This is despite having told Woolcock at a private screening that the film should be shown in every school across the UK.
When Woolcock finally managed to organise a screening at The Custard Factory the police turned up 15 minutes into the film, stopped it, “counted” the audience and took all the film crews details.
The next day, when challenged by Woolcock on Radio 5 Live, the superintendent claimed that his officers had turned up “because we heard there were problems with the projector”. This is despite the fact that the film was not projected, but shown on DVD.
The question remains at what point did the police decide for themselves that the film was a danger to public health and safety, without consultation with the filmmakers and despite being passed by the BBFC? At what point are democracy and free speech suppressed for “The Greater Good” as decided by some guy sitting at a desk somewhere? Is this Terry Gilliam’s Brazil? Are we in 1984? If so, why is Nick Griffin allowed to appear on Question Time to defend his racist views? Surely for parity we could have expected to see angry constables marching onto the set and barging David Dimbleby out of the way before carting Griffin off and hurling him in the back of a van before “counting” the audience.
The beauty of all this is that the subsequent publicity has heaped exposure upon 1 Day. In attempting to quash this film, the West Midlands police have only helped to make it stronger. To paraphrase a classic, “If you shall strike [it] down now, [it] shall only become more powerful”. I urge every single one of you to go and watch 1 Day. It rests upon one of the pillars of our society. Don’t help to knock it down.