Unfair! (1970)
By B.S. Johnson
This incredibly strange short film was commissioned by the union ACTT (Association of Cinematograph, Television and allied Technicians, of which the filmmaker and novelist B.S. Johnson was a member) as part of its action against the Industrial Relations Bill passed by parliament in 1971. Unfair! (1970, 8 mins): provocative agitprop piece with Bill Owen. Although perhaps best known for ground-breaking novels such as The Unfortunates and Christy Malry’s Own Double-Entry, BS Johnson was also the director a number of a number of extraordinary and daring films that have been out of circulation for decades. You’re Human Like the Rest of Them brings these rare and fascinating works - experimental shorts, humorous animation, provocative agitprop and uniquely personal documentaries - together for the first time, revealing Johnson to have been as radical and inventive a filmmaker as he was a writer. From his award-winning 1967 experimental film You’re Human Like the Rest of Them, which was based on his own poem, written in decasyllabics, to his ground-breaking TV films, including The Unfortunates (BBC) and the extraordinary Fat Man on a Beach (HTV), Johnson’s work is fuelled by his passio…
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