ACCEPTABLE LEVELS

FRONTROOM and BELFAST FILM WORKSHOP, 1983, 100 minutes

**** Film will be available 24 hours before the conversation event ****

‘The first fiction feature to be made under the Workshop Declaration, Acceptable Levels is a meditation on the ethics of film-making, and a powerful critique of the media.’

– The Television will be Revolutionised, The Barbican London

A BBC film crew is interviewing a ‘typical Catholic family’ in the Divis Flats area of Belfast, when news comes in that a child, known to the family, has been hit by a plastic bullet fired by a British soldier – a version of events contested by the army.

Back in London, editing the footage, the producer and researcher on the project wrestle with how to present the incident, and with their responsibility to the people in the film.

FRONTROOM and BELFAST FILM WORKSHOP:

The key members of the Acceptable Levels team met and became friends while working on the BFI feature film, Pat Murphy’s ‘Maeve’, in Belfast in 1981. Three of them; John Davies, Robert Smith and Ellin Hare were from England and had experience of freelancing on TV crews and editing for the BBC and the other two, Alastair Heron and Kate McManus were from Belfast and had experience of Catholic family life during the Troubles. The plan was hatched to bring these two very different perspectives together.

Frontroom productions was in the first tranche of film workshops to be funded by Channel Four and Acceptable Levels was one of a number of feature films they made reflecting working class experience in Britain. Belfast Film Workshop was formed during the making of the film and went on to make community films in Belfast afterwards.

Acceptable Levels was devised and written collectively drawing on the experiences of the whole group, although the final script was put together by writer Gordon Hann. Many of the key roles were played by non- actors and members of the Belfast community.

We will be joined by members of both collectives as well as Belfast community members who were part of the film

REGISTER FOR THE EVENT THEN WE WILL EMAIL:

– the link to the film 24 hours before the conversation event

– the Zoom link the day of the conversation