Sep 1, 2007
Our guest is filmmaker Yoav Segal, director of The Battle Of Cable
Street. In 1936, Oswald Mosley and his army of fascist Blackshirts
planned to march through the East End. However, Segal’s
grandfather, Ubby Cowan, and a host of others, including Jews,
Irish, and dockworkers succeeded in stopping the march. This was a
seminal event in British history as it loudly declared Britains
refusal to accept fascism. Blurring the line between live action
and animation, The Battle Of Cable Street retells the event by
presenting a young boy, Danny, who is taken inside the magical
world of his own sketchbook by his grandfather and shown what it
was like to live through the events of 1936. Danny learns, much as
his granddad did, ‘Look up, see the world around you. Find a voice,
express yourself.’ The film screened recently at the 11th annual
Rhode Island International Film Festival.