The 1984-85 U.K. miners’ strike was one of the largest, longest, and most brutal labor disputes to occur in the U.K. in the late-20th century. Today the strike is seen by many historians as one of the first major confrontations between capital and labor of the neoliberal era. On June 18th, 1984, picketing National Union of Miners’ (NUM) members at the Orgreave coal coking plant were attacked by police, which sparked a day-long street battle between strikers and police officers. What has become known as the Battle of Orgreave was one of the most violent moments in an already harsh strike. In 2001, the conceptual artist Jeremy Deller and director Mike Figgis gathered a group of strikers and police who had been present to participate in a bizarre project: the filming of a historical reenactment of the Battle of Orgreave.

Dir. Mike Figgis, 2001, English, 63 mins.

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