Socialist Film Co-Op Grand Reopening: Ken Loach’s The Big Flame and The Flickering Flame Double Bill PG

Join us for the grand reopening of the Socialist Film Co-Op in its new home, The Garden Cinema. At this inaugural event, we present a day of feature films and shorts on the history and contemporary significance of industrial action on the Liverpool Docks. Two feature films by our honorary president Ken Loach will be accompanied by a Q&A with Doreen McNally of Women of the Waterfront and John McDonnell MP. Enjoy a special reopening ticket offer- two feature films for the price of one.

The Big Flame (1969), directed by Ken Loach, follows a group of striking Liverpool dockers as they orchestrate a worker’s takeover of the docks. Written by renowned socialist playwright Jim Allen, this Wednesday Play eloquently depicts the reality of Trade Union politics and the power of an industrial community united.

In The Flickering Flame (1996), Loach revisits Liverpool in a documentary following five-hundred unjustly sacked dockworkers as they campaign for reinstatement. The action focusses on a delegation from the women’s campaign Women of the Waterfront, as they appeal for support for the sacked dockers at the 1996 TUC conference.

The London Socialist Film Co-Op was established in the early 1990s as part of a solidarity movement with the striking miners of 1984/5 and as a response to the media manipulation around the strike. Today we continue to present films which pose a counterpoint to the dominant voices in political media. Our events provide a space for debate through Q&As with speakers at the centre of socialist filmmaking and politics.

With thanks to the BFI National TV Archive.