The Brigaders Return! by IBMT Film Coordinator Marshall Mateer.
To commemorate the 85th anniversary of the return of the International Brigaders from Spain, on 7 Dec 1938, we have a special screening of a new 40-minute film, 'The Brigaders Return!’.
The film includes the original 1938 newsreel courtesy of the BFI and is to be shown live in a series of nationally coordinated events held in Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland.
The Middlesbrough commemorative event is being held in Teesside University Library, room L2.02, 6pm – 8pm, Thursday 7 December.
The International Brigades represented a collective stand against rising fascism in the 1930s and an armed campaign to defend democracy and extend internationalist solidarity. It is estimated that between 40,000 and 59,000 volunteers from over fifty countries served in the International Brigades between 1936 and 1939. Of these volunteers 2,300 came from Britain, Ireland, and the Commonwealth, with 24 from Teesside.
The event will include
Historian Tony Fox (author of I Sing Of My Comrades: Remembering Stockton’s International Brigaders and the information leaflet on the Teesside International Brigade Memorial) giving a talk on the Teesside men who returned from Spain.
Following the film Project Lono will give a live performance of ‘Romanceros’; a 20-minute dramatic soundscape created by Project Lono which features eight poems by Dr Bob Beagrie; taken from his forthcoming collection ‘Romanceros: Poems Inspired by The Spanish Civil War’ which is due for publication in 2024 by Drunk Muse Press.
The recorded version of the audio work Romanceros is available to listen to on bandcamp
There will also be time to speak to relatives of some of the volunteers, for a Q&A on the involvement and legacy of The International Brigade on Teesside, and to purchase relevant publications from Smokestack Books who have just published The Selected Poems of Clive Branson. Clive Branson served in the International Brigades in Spain, was captured, and spent eight months in Franco’s prison camps.
For further details please contact Tony Fox 07980276467 or email foxy.foxburg@gmail.com
