Juvenile Liaison - Blackburn film.

[garinda]

I've just spent a couple of hours watching some of the most fascinating film I have ever seen in my life.

Award winning film maker Nick Broomfield, he of the South African Nazi leader/Hollywood madam/Lesbian prostitute serial killer documentaries, has made two films shot in Blackburn. The first Juvenile Liasion in 1974, and Juvenile Liasion II in 1990.

I've watched most of Broomfield's film, but didn't even know about these two films made in Lancashire, until alerted to them by my brother.

The Juvenile Liaison 1974/5 film was banned from being seen by the public for over fifteen years, mainly because of government pressure, and the police.

The first film deals with Blackburn's juvenile liasion team. Investigations vary from a stolen apple and some felt tip pens, to truancy, swearing, and violence in the home.

The second film meets up with some of the people and children featured in the first, and finds out how their lives have turned out, up until it was fimed in 1990.

There are many scenes of Blackburn town centre, and the estates and streets that surround it.

Accrington, and a story centred there, is discussed on film.

I urge anyone with an interest in film, social history, local history, politics, crime and punishment, to see these films.

As well as being interesting on many different levels, they are quite hard to watch.

Mental illness, drugs, poverty, domestic violence. It isn't a barrel of laughs.

One of the most harrowing moments was when I realised that the most disturbed child in the first film was someone I saw everyday, some years later, when I was on my way home from school, and from whom I bought a Lancashire Evening Telegraph on the Boulevard.

I'm full of differing emotions after watching these films, and there are questions raised, and issues touched on, that mean I could write enough to fill a book.

I hope others see these films, if they think they might be interested.

I watched them free online at LoveFilm.com, though I did sign up for a monthly package, from £4.99, but which you can presumably cancel after watching what's available for free.

They also seem to be available to download at other places too, if you do a search.

I'd love to read other peoples' opinions of these two very powerful films, shot locally in Lancashire. If anybody else wants to watch them, or has indeed already seen them.

Juvenile Liaison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TURN THAT THING OFF: Filmmaker Nick Broomfield | Your FLESH mag

Juvenile Liaison I & II

Nick Broomfield's official website

[garinda]

There is a trailer on You Tube, but not the whole films, that I've found.

[DaveinGermany]

I believe there was something similar shown within the last 8 month or so as part of the BBC season crime & punishment, a lot of it was based in schools & showed how the teachers of the day (late 60's early 70's) dealt with unruly kids, without the constraints we find in modern day Britain.

Much of the "Discipline & punishment" was in a similar vein as that in the trailer posted. Which would in todays "You can't do that, I've got rights !" Society makes the squeamish wince & demand some one should be held responsible for such barbarity, really ? And Who exactly ?

Had those doing the bleating taken a firmer & more responsible attitude in days gone by & adhered to their belief of someone being responsible, namely themselves, then perhaps we wouldn't be seeing the levels of violence & depravity that we are witnessing in the here & now.

[mobertol]

Looked at the trailer and it's pretty hard watching, how could he harass a 7 yr old in that way....
It reminded me a bit of a documentary series I have seen where they followed the lives of a group of children interviewing them every 7 yrs (it may have been called Seven) and showing how they evolved and turned out. That was interesting viewing and quite enlightening - this looks pretty scarey but i'll see if i can find it to watch more, as long as it doesn't give me nightmares....