Gary Jay

A look at the number of canal deaths in the Manchester Region.

Between 1968 and 1970, J M Goodger, a lecturer at the University of Salford, made a film record of the living conditions in the slums of Ordsall, Salford, which were then in the process of being demolished. Under the title 'The Changing face of Salford', the film was in two parts: 'Life in the slums' and 'Bloody slums'.

'Water', says the transport man, 'is lovely stuff' - and the development plan for British Waterways is based on this belief. The film shows parts of the plan in action, then goes to the N.E. Division, where a skipper is taking 110 tons of newsprint from Hull to Nottingham. 'As a drink', says the transport man, 'you may not think much of it. But used like this...'

Illustrates the reconstruction and electrification of the main railway line between Manchester and Sheffield. Showing the plan for the modernisation and re-equipping of British Railways. This film was produced for televising by the BBC during the evening that the plan was debated in parliament.

A documentary on the events when a bomb went off at the Ariana Grande concert.

How could a German Wehrmacht soldier become a celebrated soccer idol of the Britons in the post-war period? The documentary by Radio Bremen shows the moving life story of the soccer star of the 1950s in a torn Europe and how an enemy became a friend. With his legendary appearance in the English Cup Final 1956, in which he played until the end despite a broken neck, Bert Trautmann set up a memorial for himself in the history of sport. Already in the same year, he is chosen as England’s footballer of the year, and by his club Manchester City even as best player of all times. Bernhard “Bert” Trautmann is one of the most popular and best-known soccer players in England.

Not everyone who nowadays drives on the A73 between Nuremberg and Bamberg knows that they are travelling on a former waterway. As recently as half a century ago, the old Ludwig-Main-Danube-Canal (in short: Ludwig-Canal) was located here, which represented the last puzzle piece of a navigable connection between the oceans. Built within a remarkable ten years’ time of construction, the canal, which was opened in 1846, was the realization of a small dream of humanity as it finally connected the North Sea with the Black Sea. Unfortunately, the idea could not support itself financially: Too powerful were the railroads, which saw their rise simultaneously, and which soon undermined the ambitious canal project’s future as they were in every regard the faster, more comfortable, and better means of transportation of the hour.

Beginning at the industrial revolution of the ‘great north’, Jenn Nkiru draws lines between peoples, cities, countries, buildings, movements, bodies and spaces(s) using a mixture of archive materials and new footage. There is little stillness as we are pushed and pulled through Black histories and communities across the city of Manchester and beyond. Nkiru has termed this filmmaking process “cosmic archeology”, and it is grounded in Afro-surrealism, experimental film and the Black arts movement.