Indymedia Presents Winstanley

bristol | community | event notice Wednesday July 15, 2009 23:39 by IMC VOl - Bristol Indymedia

Inconjunction with Anarchist Bookfair

Indymedia presents: Winstanley (the Diggers and St George's Hill)

Mon 7 September / 7.45pm / £4 or £3 (but nobody refused for lack of funds)

Winstanley – Andrew Mollo & Kevin Brownlow, UK / 1975 / 95 mins / cert 15

Join us and the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair Collective for this screening
of a restored version of this important film from 1975. In the run up to
the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair on 12 September, this film evokes some of
the earliest examples of anarchist thought and practice. Indeed the
occupations by the Diggers have been described by some as the first
anarcho-communist revolution in history. The context of the film will be
introduced by Steve Mills, a local trade union activist and Bristol
radical historian.

Still from Winstanley

On 1 April 1649, Winstanley and the Diggers set out to form a commune and
work the land of St George's Hill, in an action designed to reclaim land
for the poor who had been dispossessed by Cromwell's recent English
Revolution. Unsurprisingly in a time of great upheaval they meet much
opposition, surprisingly some of it from those peasants they seek to
enthuse, and their action lasts only a year, although many similar
settlements occur elsewhere. Their story delves into issues relevant then
as now – land ownership, class, power and the law, religious puritanism,
and hierarchies.

Authentic, exciting and dramatic, with spellbinding black and white
camera-work creating a powerfull visual experience. The film is rightly judged to be a classic, and is based on the book Comrade Jacob, by David Caute (1961), who was a former pupil of the great historian and one time communist, Christopher Hill. Watch out too for the appearance of some genuine 1970's hippies as ranters! Enjoy.

http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org
http://bristol.indymedia.org/