Writer & Editor
The Covid lockdowns drew new attention to the extent of the deprivation that scars Britain. But two years on, little has changed – and for millions of people, the cost of living crisis is making things even worse. I wrote about Stu Hennigan’s Ghost Signs: Poverty and the Pandemic for Tribune.
The rise of Shelagh Delaney. I wrote a cover essay about the playwright for the November 2019 issue of the TLS.
A young Italian-born woman’s life in England. I wrote about Lorenza Mazzetti’s memoir, London Diaries, for the TLS.
An exhibition offers the chance to explore how in 1975 an empty shop in Bethnal Green became home to a pioneering set of independent filmmakers whose work boldly focused on under-represented communities. I wrote about the radical history of collaborative filmmaking and community photography at the Four Corners workshop and Camerawork in Bethnal Green for Sight & Sound.
What do pictures of 1970s Tyneside tells us about Britain now? A survey of Tish Murtha’s work at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, shows the compassion and conviction of the late documentary photographer. I reviewed the exhibition for frieze magazine.
The kitchen sink films of the 1950s and the social realist tradition of Ken Loach have come to define British working-class cinema, but since the 90s women and non-binary people have been key to reimagining its range. I wrote this essay on gender, class and film for the special ‘Class Ceiling’ issue of Sight & Sound.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is Desiree Akhavan’s 1990s-set tale of a young woman sent to a rural gay conversion therapy centre run by Christians. I interviewed the director for the October 2018 issue of Sight & Sound. Continue reading “Dire Straights: an interview with Desiree Akhavan”
Why did Nell Dunn, the daughter of an earl, choose to write about working-class lives? In this interview she reflects back on her seminal book, Talking to Women (1964), and the unheard voices she recorded in it. I talked to the author about writing, talking and listening for Boundless.
Commemoration of the events of May ’68 has masked a wider context of political agitation – in particular, the radicalism of women. I wrote about ‘Revolt, She Said‘, a radical film tour curated by Club des Femmes and ICO, for the September 2018 issue of Sight & Sound.
Continue reading “Kicking Against The Pricks: Revolt, She Said”
I wrote an essay on Andrea Dunbar for the feminist film journal, Another Gaze.
Anna Coatman 