Pride (2014)

Uplifting. Inspiring. Heart-warming. 'Pride' is an ode to activism, and an illustration of how hearts and minds can be changed through the actions of a few, and the support of many. It is funny and smart without trivialising the issues that it deals with, and follows on from The Full Monty and Billy Elliot as a story set in Britain's shattered industrial base.

Pride follows the workers of the Welsh mining community of Onllwyn in the Dulais Valley, and their unlikely allies - a group of homosexual fund-raisers who storm the streets of London with buckets in hand, collecting money for their community. Joe (played by MacKay), is a middle-class, entirely normal young man who attends a Pride march in London, which his equally middle-class, far more homophobic parents would not be pleased about. There, he is offered a banner saying 'QUEERS: better blatant than latent'. At the march, he meets Mark (Schnetzer), a young, LGBT rights activist who makes the plans for fundraising, founds LGSM (An LGBT group working in support of the miners), and has managed to drive the minibus to Powys before you can say even Bronski Beat. In Onllwyn, the group meet Dai (Considine), Cliff (Nighy), and Hefina (Staunton), who are organizing a separate fund-raising for the miners in their village. Their initial mistrust softens as easily as butter, and the two very different groups come together for a good cause.

The story is entirely true, and the members of LGSM showed their support for the miners because Mark saw something in their cause that reminded him of his own. They were one and the same - mocked and demonized in the tabloids, at odds with the police, labelled a nuisance by their own community, loathed by Thatcher's government, and in some cases, disowned by their loved ones. It has the same dramatic motor driving it as the modern, contemporary Britain we know today. Of course, things have changed; there are no coal miners on strike, LGBT marriage has been legalized, and the LGBT community is no longer labelled as something to be feared or disgusted by. Yes, there is still tension and taboo that surrounds being LGBTQ+ or questioning, but there is a range of support and systems in place to help people - young and old - to come to terms with their sexuality, and laws in place to protect those people. We are still a long way off a society in which being LGBTQ+ or otherwise identifying is perfectly accepted, but we are making so much progress. This is what makes movies like Pride so essential - it is in equal parts inspiring and warm, supportive and controversial, confidence-building and barrier-breaking. Pride is a shining example of LGBTQ+ cinema, and wonderfully explores so many aspects of queerness that goes so far beyond a coming out story. Pride is hopeful. Pride vibrates all of the energy of its West End counterpart. Pride is everything that a young queer individual needs to see, and it will tell them 'you have a voice'.

LGBTQ+, questioning or otherwise, I implore you; watch this movie.