Capturing our women's past

International Women's Day has been the subject of several articles in the Morning Star this year - not least because it is the 100th anniversary.

And last Saturday an audience of young and old, men and women drawn from a range of backgrounds marked the occasion at the premiere of Hidden Herstories.

This documentary film focuses on the lives of Octavia Hill, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Claudia Jones and Jayaben Desai - four truly inspirational women whose immense contributions to British society would be widely recognised if they had been white men.

Courtesy of the initiative of the Octavia Foundation and backed by £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, for just under an hour this film thrusts into the limelight the stories of four women who, in spite of the odds which their times stacked against them, fought relentlessly for justice, equality and freedom.

Their struggles have tangibly resulted in greater freedoms and quality of life which are enjoyed by all today.

And their stories are now being told thanks to the tireless work of a group of 13 to 24-year-olds, many of whom have disabilities, who took on the lengthy task on top of their responsibilities in education and work to produce a remarkably slick documentary on these women's significance.

Flying in the face of media stereotypes of youngsters as lazy, apathetic and troublesome, this group seized the opportunity to learn about and tell the stories of subjects they could relate to.

Some of the film-makers had previous experience uncovering untold history, having worked on a project on the 20th century history of Ladbroke Grove in west London. That documentary, Grove Roots, went on to win the best film award in the youth category at the Portobello Film Festival last year.

Also organised by the Octavia Foundation and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, it was of direct relevance to the youngsters.

Previously they had little idea that in streets which now belong to them their parents and grandparents had fought and been brutalised to end the reign of fear in their communities by the likes of Oswald Mosley's Union Movement and Colin Jordan's White Defence League.

With Hidden Herstories, they again found themselves coming face to face with an untold past.

From their research they found that although these remarkable women had been absent from their schools' history books, they were very important to their own personal lives.

One of the crew, Tamieka Rowe, told the audience of Claudia Jones: "She was a black hero, but we haven't studied her. She was the mother of Notting Hill Carnival and I wouldn't have known that without doing the research for this movie."

Rowe added that at school there had been no interesting historical figures she could engage with. "I would have rather had people like Claudia Jones and Amy Ashwood Garvey because these women are important to us," she said.

"I know Henry VIII is important and all that, but these women really made history and we need to know about this."

Novellist and playwright Vanessa Walters described a similar experience.

She said: "We weren't taught about any sort of world history that was diverse. It was a quite traditional British empire, colonial view of the world.

"Where do you start? It would've been nice to hear about Claudia Jones. It would've been nice to know a bit about slavery. It would've been nice to learn a more balanced view of history."

On top of teaching them more about a heritage which they could be proud of, their participation in every stage of making the film has helped to equip the group with valuable filming, research, interviewing and production skills.

Along the journey they met politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn MP, much-loved celebrities like Ms Dynamite and Don Letts, senior trade unionists like RMT general secretary Bob Crow, and Desai, the only living subject of the film.

And as the film-makers embark on a screening tour with more than 12 viewings in the pipeline, talking about the project in front of large audiences is boosting their confidence.

This project shows that when trust is put in young people to work with a strong support team, they discredit our society's patronising and untrusting attitude towards them.

The stories of Hill, Garvey, Jones and Desai are far too great to tackle here - each would need an article of their own.

As for the film itself, the Morning Star and Venezuelan embassy have joined forces to hold a special screening next Tuesday at Bolivar Hall, London.

It's free and open to all and the audience will get to speak to the youngsters and hear about their experiences.

The DVD will only be distributed to schools, community organisations, media organisations and charities due to the limited budget of the project, so copies will be hard to come by. If you can't make it to Bolivar Hall next week, visit www.hiddenherstories.org for a list of other screenings.

Next Tuesday's Hidden Herstories screening takes place from 7pm-9pm at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1. To find out more and see a trailer visit the Facebook group http://tiny.cc/pjBJM and to RSVP email

lizziecocker@peoples-press.com or phone (020) 8525-6982.