Precursor of Pride: The Pleasures and Aesthetics of Framed Youth.

Abstract

This article explores the causal links between the 1983 Channel 4 documentary Framed Youth: Revenge of the Teenage Perverts and the feature film Pride (2014), via All Out: Dancing in Dulais (1986). It will be argued that Pride – the story of miners’ support group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) - would never have been made if it had not been for Framed Youth, which featured Mark Ashton and which was made by a team that included future LGSM activists Jeff Cole and Nicola Field. A case will also be made for Framed Youth and Pride as both popular and radical, in managing to achieve a difficult balance between politics and pleasure, or (socio-political) critique and comedy. The article will discuss the origins of Framed Youth in the conjuncture of community theatre and community video, and its relationship to Channel 4, which broadcast the documentary in 1986. Attention will be devoted to the neglect of considerations around audiences in the independent film and video, and Framed Youth and The Miners’ Campaign Tapes are cited as notable exceptions, due to their imaginative and successful approach to building audiences through distribution and exhibition. The article will conclude by considering why it is important that the story of LGSM was told through a feature film, returning to the topic of the balance between comedy and socio-political critique.