PRIDE

1/ Introduction

A/ Summary

It's the summer of 1984 Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is on strike. At the Gay Pride March in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists decides to raise money to support the families of the striking miners. Led by Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer), the London chapter of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) started to collect money to help the union workers. Standing outside the "Gay is the Word" bookstore, Mark and his friends hold buckets and chant out the name of their organization. Some people donate, but others spit at them. Mark convinces his friends to persevere because the only people the homophobic British newspapers treated worse than gay people were the miners. "If anybody knows what this treatment feels like," Mark says, "it's us." But there is a problem. The Union seems embarrassed to receive their support.

However the activists don't give up. They decide to ignore the Union and go direct to the miners. They identify a mining village in deepest Wales and set off in a mini bus to make their donation in person. Through a misunderstanding about the group's acronym ("I thought the L stood for London," says Paddy Considine's miner, Dai), LGSM hooks up with the Dalais Valley miners in South Wales. After meeting with the group, Dai invites them to attend a union meeting in his Welsh town. And so begins the extraordinary story of two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising and ultimately triumphant partnership.

Those joining Mark on the trip include Joe (George MacKay), a college student who is not out to his parents. He is a shy, inexperienced young man who meets Mark at the 1984 London Gay Pride parade.

  1. Where? 
  2. When?
  3. Who are the two communities?
  4. Who is supporting whom? Why?

Find these words and expressions in the text:

  • pire
  • au fin fond
  • un malentendu
  • timide
  • se mettre en route
  • découragés
  • des seaux
  • un syndicat
  • assister à
  • étranger
  • leur soutien
  • des militants
  • récolter des fonds
  • cracher sur

B/  Watch the trailer for PRIDE


• Where? (country, landscape,...)

• What type of background music is there at the beginning?

• Who are the characters?

• When does it take place?


 2/What was the period like?

Listen and answer the questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhsl0QHSDWE

1. Who is being interviewed?

2. What is it about?

3. Choose which adjectives correspond to her attitude and try to justify your answer:

understanding - adamant - encouraging - polite - vulgar

contemptuous - lower-class - determined - patient - convincing

authoritative - sympathetic - supportive

4. Watch again and pick out words that she repeats several times?

5. What is her response to the demonstrators' demand? Why?


3/  Stereotypes 

At the beginning of the film, both communities (gays and miners) have strong prejudice about the other. List all the preconceived ideas both camps have, then make sentences using the expressions below.

TOOLBOX : Expressing contrast and opposition: whereas / on the contrary / contrary to / while / but / compared to / on the one hand... on the other hand 

4/ Getting to know one another 

A/ Once they have found a common enemy, what do you think makes the two parties go beyond their prejudice and become friends? Is it easy from the start? Is everyone best friends forever at the end? Why? 

 B/ Which scenes are important in showing the evolution of the relationship between the two communities? 

C/ The film shows some parallel / mirror scenes, in which characters from both sides experience the same thing but in the other camp. Can you think of any examples of such scenes? 

D/ What do you think is the morale of the story, when it comes to prejudice? 

5/ The power of words: how to deal with insults 

A/ What is Joe's reaction when he reads in the newspapers that homosexuals are described as "perverts"? 

B/ On the contrary, what is his friend Mark's reaction? 

C/ Explain how gays (in general and more particularly in this situation) deal with insults. 

D/ Can you think of other communities who have also turned their abusive nicknames into names they were proud to use? 

E/ What do you think of this strategy? 

6/ Other languages 

A/ Some scenes at the beginning of the film show how hard it is for gays and miners to talk together. Which other forms of expression help them break the ice? 

B/ Try to remember all the scenes in which the characters dance or sing. What do they have in common? What does it tell us about music and dancing in life? 

C/ The soundtrack is very important in Pride. Which role(s) does it play in the film? Is it just here to illustrate the pictures? Which film genre does Pride almost belong to, and why? 

D/ Bread and roses

In January 1912, in the great textile centre of Lawrence, Massachusetts, 20,000 workers walked out of the mills in spontaneous protest against a cut in their weekly pay. During one of the many parades conducted by the strikers, some young girls carried a banner with the slogan: "We want bread and roses too." They were quoting a poem which was to become a landmark for years to come.


As we go marching, marching

In the beauty of the day

A million darkened kitchens

A thousand mill lofts grey

Are touched with all the radiance

That a sudden sun discloses

For the people hear us singing

Bread and roses, bread and roses

As we go marching, marching

We battle too for men

For they are women's children

And we mother them again

Our lives shall not be sweetened

From birth until life closes

Hearts starve as well as bodies

Give us bread, but give us roses

As we go marching, marching

We bring the greater days

For the rising of the women

Means the rising of the race

No more the drudge and idler

Ten that toil where one reposes

But the sharing of life's glories

Bread and roses, bread and roses

  • What did these women mean when they said: "Give us Bread, but Give us Roses" ?
  • Express your feelings about this song.

7/ Final task: 

Create a dialogue between two villagers of the Dalais Valley. One strongly disapproves of the presence of the Gay and Lesbian group. They both try to find ideas to support the miners' families during the strike. (min. 100 words). Then act it out! 

Grammar tools ot help you write your dialogue : 

You may need to ask questions : Observe and deduce how a question is composed:

  • What are you doing to help the miners?
  • Do you think we should help the miners?
  • When did they stop working?
  • How long have they been on strike?
  • Should we collect money every day?


a) What is the right order of these words?

Subject /auxiliary /past participle/ V-ing/ question word/verbal base

b) Make a list of the auxiliaries used and concentrate on the form of the verb that follows them (verbal base or past participle or V-ing? ).

c) What about the following questions: are they correct?

1. How long ago did they start to strike? 

2. How old do you have to be, to be a miner? 

3. How often are the Gay and Lesbian Community insulted in our society?

d.) Now observe the following question and explain why it isn't built like the previous ones:

- Who supported the miners?

Now write your dialogue and act it out!


Vocabulary :

Pride : fierté

Strike : grève

Worse : pire

Union : Syndicat

Bucket : seau

Iron lady La dame de fer

Coal : charbon

Pit : la mine

Pervert : pervert

Activist : militant

To support : soutenir, aider

To quit : démissionner

Jobless : chômeur

Unemployed : chômeur

Stereotype : stéréotype

Whereas : alors que

Despite : malgré

On the contrary : contrairement à 

While : pendant que

Compared : comparé à 

According to : selon

To demonstrate : manifester

Old-fashion : démodé

Effeminate : éfféminé

Urban : urbain

Rural : rural

Narrow-minded : étroit d'esprit

Open minded : ouvert d'esprit

Girly : féminin

Trendy : branché, à la mode

Personality : personalité

Character : personnage, charactère

Ignorance : ignorance

Prejudice : préjugé

Leeway : marge de manoeuvre, latitude

Cheerful : amical

Disability : hancicap

Disease : maladie

Isolate : isolé

To deny : nier

Gender genre

To agree : être d'accord

housewife : femme au foyer

Charity event : évènement caritatif

Relationship : relation