The film is about the work of Save the Children, a British-based charity working for children around the world. This film looks at examples of the charity's work in England and Africa – the Starehe Boys Centre and School in Kenya. According to Garnett's biographer Stephen Lacey, the film-makers objected to what they saw as the charity's "neo-colonial attitude towards indigenous cultures".[1]
In the film, director Ken Loach visits an institution in Nairobi where children were forbidden to converse in their native tongues.[2] Several Save the Children employees were also on film making disparaging remarks about the parents of young Mancunians in their charge.[2]
Ban
Save the Children objected to the film and refused to pay for it. They prevented it from being shown until 2011, when they eventually agreed to allow a screening by the BFI. Kestrel Films, co-founded by Tony Garnett and others, nearly went bankrupt in their legal battle with Save the Children.[3]
There was a screening at the University of Birmingham in 2014,[4] at the University of Bristol in 2015[5] and one at the University of Warwick in 2017. The screening at Warwick was followed by a panel discussion, which was attended by the then Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Save the Children UK.[6]
A copy of the film is held at the BFI archives and it can be viewed (for free) by visiting a BFI mediatheque and booking time on one of the viewers there.[7]
References
^ abStephen Lacey Tony Garnett, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007, p.79