2. - Pride is a historical comedy-drama, written by Stephen
Beresford and directed by Matthew Warchus.
- It was released in the UK on the 12th of September
2014 and made a total gross of around £3.3 million.
- Set in the it tells the true story of members of the
LGBT community banded together to form LGSM, a
group supporting the miners on strike, who like them,
often faced harassment from the police force.
- It stars Bill Nighy, Andrew Scott, Imelda Staunton and
Ben Schnetzer.
- Pride won three BFI awards and one BAFTA.
4. Historical context
Pride tells the true story of LGSM, or
“Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners”,
an activist group which formed an alliance
in 1984 with a small mining village in Wales.
LGSM raised money for the miners on strike
first through standing outside shops with
collection buckets, then larger projects such
as “Pits & Perverts”, a benefit concert held
at the Electric Ballroom in Camden (the name
is thought to have originated from the newspaper
The Sun referring to LGSM as perverts).
5. Production
- Pride was produced by Pathé, who
are known for producing other films
of the drama genre such as 127 Hours,
Philomena and Slumdog Millionaire.
- Filming took place in various locations
throughout England and Wales, with
the original bookshop owned by one of
the main characters also being used.
- Some of the original members of LGSM
make cameo appearances in the end scene.
6. Marketing
Pride used social media to its advantage,
creating a blog, facebook and twitter pages.
Photos of the characters and stills shots
were posted as a way to introduce the
audience to the film, and the hashtag
#AskAndrew was used as a way for fans
to ask Andrew Scott (the actor portraying
LGSM member Gethin) questions about the
film and his character.
The twitter page for Pride also featured
a giveaway of a free LGSM shirt used on set.
The casting of well-known actors such as Bill Nighy,
Imelda Staunton and Andrew Garfield also helped to gain
a wider audience for fans of the actors.
7. US release
The film received a limited release in the US on 26
September 2014, with screenings in New York City,
Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The US DVD design for Pride caused controversy, as
it removed any references to the main characters being
gay, including the removal of a large banner and only
referring to LGSM as “a group of London-based
activists”, whereas the standard description was “a
London-based group of gay and lesbian activists”.
In the US, Pride grossed $84,800 from six theatres in
its opening weekend.
