Acts of Resistance is a PhD by documentary film-practice, recording first-person accounts of British new left and anarchist activism between 1956 and 1974. Between 2016 and 2023 I filmed with former activists of the Committee of 100 and the Libertarian Socialist group Solidarity to contextualise artefacts and archives of their non-violent protest and direct-action campaigns for peace and nuclear disarmament, and against fascism, imperialism, and homelessness. Further research revealed recordings of predeceased activists. My research generated the theory and practice position of Critical Humanist Documentary, demonstrated in documentary chapters: ‘The Committee of 100 (parts 1 and 2)’, ‘Spies for Peace’ and ‘House the Homeless’.

Drawing on sociologist Ken Plummer’s ‘critical humanism’ (Plummer, 2013) my practice prioritises the sociological, ethical, and political significance of life stories and first -person narratives. Defining ‘artefact’ as human-made phenomena (Smith 2007), I apply the term to activists’ actions (demonstrations, occupations, illegal radio broadcasts) as well as their material creations (documents, publications, graphics, films, photographs), designed to generate support and publicity to expose hidden iniquities of states and capital in narratives of ‘counter-hegemony’ (Williams, 1977, p.113).

Prioritising contributors as participants rather than subjects, my role as documentarist is to visualise and edit their contributions into the historical narrative, after which I invite their comments on iterations to increase accuracy.
Participant observation underpins my retrieval and contextualisation of the participants’ histories in a form that avoids emotionally manipulative audio-visual tropes.

My work is influenced by filmmakers (e.g., Kopple, Loach, McQueen and Rogan, Morris) whose critical-humanist documentaries employ participant testimony as basis for revelatory or counter-hegemonic narratives. My methodology is informed by critical, descriptive, and analytical documentary theory that draws on Western Marxism and Critical Humanism.

Research questions:

1. How does my documentary research practice and the productions of others support the theorisation of Critical Humanist Documentary as practice method?

2. In what respects does Critical Humanist documentary differ from mainstream forms of broadcast documentary-factual entertainment regarding editorial intentions, positioning of subjects and representational tropes?

Sub Questions

3. In what respects were the featured activists able to engage with the broadcast and press media of the period studied?

4. How and why has the British broadcasting culture of socially engaged and historiographic documentary and current affairs been eroded and marginalised, and in favour of what?

This submission also contains 4 film that can be requested for viewing after 24/10/2024:

Acts of Resistance, History of Committee of 100 Part 1

Acts of Resistance, History of Committee of 100 Part 2

Acts of Resistance, Squatters Movement 1968 - 1974

Acts of Resistance, Spies for Peace