"A community processes through a main street, painted banners swaying above the crowd. In their midst a brass band plays on, leading, guiding, giving hope. The images are black and white, peopled by successive generations. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1984-85 miners' strike. Unless you already know about The Miners' Hymns, you may not have heard of the composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, or be sure which Bill Morrison created the sequence of archive footage described above. The strange counterpoint between an Icelandic minimalist, an American film-maker and a bitter episode in recent British history has resulted in a work as unclassifiable as it is unforgettable. The Miners' Hymns, produced by Forma Arts, mourns and celebrates a lost industrial past. The pitheads of the north and north-east, most of them, have been grassed over. The contours of a way of life remain indelible. ..."
The Miners' Hymns review – a rich seam of music and mine (Video)
Icarus Films
Feature length films : The Miners' Hymns - Bill Morrison
2012 June: Bill Morrison, 2015 October: Decasia (2002)
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