Gala Day
Director John Irvin
Countries United Kingdom
Duration 25 min
Synopsis
Since he saw Durham's annual miners gala, director John Irvin was fascinated by it. Having been awarded £750 by the BFI he set out to make this film, which captures the day from the very start of the day until the very close. It was shot by several cameras over one day and edited together over several months before being sold to the BBC. On interesting bit of trivia that I learnt while trying to get information together to get this film added to IMDb was that the film caused local controversy when it was screened by the BBC in 1964. The miners took objection to the way they were depicted in some scenes and the matter went to the House of Commons and resulted in the BBC not screening it again for another year.
Since he saw Durham's annual miners gala, director John Irvin was fascinated by it. Having been awarded £750 by the BFI he set out to make this film, which captures the day from the very start of the day until the very close. It was shot by several cameras over one day and edited together over several months before being sold to the BBC. On interesting bit of trivia that I learnt while trying to get information together to get this film added to IMDb was that the film caused local controversy when it was screened by the BBC in 1964. The miners took objection to the way they were depicted in some scenes and the matter went to the House of Commons and resulted in the BBC not screening it again for another year.