The London School of Economics has two connotations in my head: history and economics teachers at my secondary schools seem to have gone there and came out as rather intense, committed Labour-voting blokes who wanted us all to go there too. That's in the late fifties and early sixties. Then in 1968 there was the great LSE uprising - part of the worldwide student revolt and I made several pilgrimages to see what was going on and to hear and meet the students - some of whom I still see. In fact, one of the leaders, Martin Tomkinson was on the Piccadilly Line to Turnpike Lane the other night and we were soon going over such matters as the state of world capitalism, Arsene Wenger and the state of Muswell Hill. I'm sure there's a link between all three. And probably Trotsky said something about it in his famous tract 'Whither Arsenal Football Club?'
That's enough of all that.
The point is that 'Under the Cranes' is showing at the LSE Space for Thought literary festival this coming Saturday, March 3rd at 5.00 pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre. This is the film that Emma-Louise Williams made based on a play for voices that I wrote about Hackney, migration, 'regeneration' and how people have lived and made their home there.
Here's the link to the LSE site for tickets:
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2012/03/LitFest20120303t1700vSZT.aspx
Here's the link to blogspot of the film with reviews and news of the film:
http://underthecranes.blogspot.com/
Emma and I will take part in the discussion after the film and I half expect Martin Tomkinson, John Rose, Robin Blackburn, Darshana Bogilal and others to emerge out of the gloom and start speaking about occupations, Stalinism and the Vietnam War. Perhaps there's a play to write about that...hmmmm.
In the meantime, please come to the film. There's wonderful music and great photography. We showed it at Sutton House in Hackney last Saturday and several people said that they thought it was 'beautiful' and were moved by it.
See you there.
