The Glasgow School of Art

This Mine is Ours: A Film Showing
in collaboration with Document and the New Glasgow Society

In the years after the ‘84 Miners Strike, when all coal mines in Scotland were gradually shut down, a group comprising ex-miners from Ayrshire, Fife and Lothians put their savings together and financed the reopening of Scotland’s deepest mine, Monktonhall, as a collective enterprise.

Austro-Hungarian architect Egon Riss had designed a few buildings in Vienna before escaping the Nazis in the1930s to come to these shores. In 1947 he started work as the architect for the newly nationalised National Coal Board, and in the 50s and 60s he designed the modernist pit head buildings for six super pits across Scotland. This made him one of the most prominent modernist industrial architects in Scotland.  All these buildings have now been demolished.

David Peat worked as a cameraman and photographer in a range of locations, from 1970s Belfast to the Amazon. But since his death in 2012 it is his personal work, in particular his bearing witness to the decline of industrial Scotland, that has come to define him. This Mine is Ours typifies his approach to observational documentary – intimate, committed and deeply sympathetic.

Artist Chris Dooks will be playing his latest music/word sounds after the film and discussion. There will be a free giveaway of his 12inch coloured vinyl disc for all who attend. (sponsored by the Drouth)