‘Hulme was a failed utopian dream on a council estate,” says the DJ Luke Una. “A city within a city. Like nowhere else I’ve ever seen.”
Join us for a screening of documentary and archival video footage and a collective discussion of Manchester's housing history! The Spirit of Hulme (2017) documents 70 years of Hulme history retrospectively through the struggle for better housing, with a focus on the Hulme Crescents. This documentary will be followed by screenings of There's No Place Like Hulme (1978)and its follow-up of the same name in 2019, held at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre's Hulme Study Archive. Both of these collect firsthand accounts and oral histories of life in the Hulme Crescents, presenting resident's views of this important public housing project. After the films we'll have time for a collective discussion and reflection -- all are welcome!
More about the Hulme Crescents:
The Hulme Crescents history: https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/gone/crescents.html
Recent coverage about the Hulme Crescents of the 1980s: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/27/it-was-like-blade-runner-meets-berlin-rave-the-manchester-sink-estate-with-the-uks-wildest-nightclub
How Hulme inspired three generations of photographers: https://theface.com/culture/how-hulme-inspired-three-generations-of-photographers-manchester-richard-davis-al-baker-anne-worthington-hulmeloonies-shirley-baker
Learn more about the films:
The Spirit of Hulme (2017), 50min.
The Spirit Of Hulme is a whistle stop tour through 70 years of Hulme's history. Focusing on some of those who fought for better housing conditions and the right of the Community to be consulted on what replaced the system build housing that had, largely, failed within seven years of construction. This was a Heritage Lottery Funded project made by past and present residents of Hulme, MMU film students and REELmcr.
There's No Place Like Hulme (1978), 8min.
A short edited TV documentry about Hulme in Manchester from 1978.
No Place Like Hulme (2019), 5 min.
Contemporary residents share experiences and perceptions of their neighbourhood. Inspired by the Hulme Study Archive collection held at Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre. This film was made by students Ella Marsden, Jasmine Rowland, Lada Naryskina and Robert Smailes.
This film screening is organized by PhD students from The University of Manchester -- we'd love to hear from you if there are other urban history films you'd like to collectively watch and discuss!
