Project Detail

Belonging: The Truth Behind the Headlines

Synopsis

An investigative feature-length documentary about where power lies in the United Kingdom. Re-examining events surrounding three industrial disputes, three governments and over three decades, the film shows the impact of government and corporate power on democracy and human rights not just for trade unionists, but for all.
There are many reveals – not least a secret government plan to destroy community and collectivism. The film uses documents clearly showing what has long been suspected by many but not proven – until now.
Heart-wrenching personal stories are told by those at the centre of these industrial disputes, not only highlighting the impact of the actions of those in power on individuals and communities, but also raising the question of what lies ahead.
From Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of The Times and The Sunday Times in 1981 through the News International dispute (1986/7), Royal Mail as it prepared for privatisation (2007/8) and a dispute at the Grangemouth Oil Refinery in Scotland (2013), Belonging explores what has happened behind closed doors of successive UK governments and the resulting impact on people’s human rights. Power: “who has it, and what do they do with it?” is as relevant today as it ever was.

Details

Year
2017
Type of film
Features
Running time
89 mins approx
Format
Digital
Director
Morag Livingstone 1st Feature
Producer
Morag Livingstone
Editor
Morag Livingstone and Inspired Film and Video
Director of Photography
Chris Leslie
Sound
Inspired Film and Video
Composer
Mick Penkethman
Principal cast
Rupert Murdoch, Stevie Deans, Terry Smith, Burslem 12, Ailis Deans, henrietta Hill QC
Image
©Press Association

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Livingstone Media Limited

c/o contact@belonging4us.com

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Spacewoman Spacewoman

Director: Hannah Berryman

Year: 2024

A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle. Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all. At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere

Freeing Flipper (Working Title) Freeing Flipper (Working Title)

Director: Barney Douglas

Year: 2026

The extraordinary story of Richard “Ric” O’Barry, once the world’s highest-paid dolphin trainer, now their most passionate defender, risking his life and liberty to free these remarkable creatures from captivity. In the 1960s, Ric was America’s leading dolphin trainer at the Miami Seaquarium and the celebrated trainer behind the hit TV series Flipper, whose smiling stars enchanted a generation. Everything changed after the apparent suicide of one of the show’s dolphins, Kathie - a moment that shattered his beliefs and set him on a radical path from insider to activist. For over 50 years, Ric has led a global campaign against dolphin captivity. As founder of Dolphin Project, he has risked arrest, injury, and personal loss to rescue dolphins and expose the industry’s darkest secrets. Both celebrated and criticised, he remains steadfast that every captive dolphin can be returned to the wild. Told through intimate family access, joyous underwater imagery, and covert filming, Ric’s mission has transformed a non-issue into a global movement. Now 85, he must ask: after a lifetime spent freeing others, can he finally set himself free?

Hands opening the small cover pages of a book, with the title 'Constantinopoliad' above, and text revealed within the pages. Constantinopoliad

Director: sister sylvester and Nadah El Shazly

Year: 2025

Constantinopoliad is an expanded documentary and installation that centers around the collective reading of a hand-made book. A response to the archive of the poet Constantine Cavafy, the story is inspired by the blank and torn out pages in “Constantinopoliad, an epic”, the journal the teenage Cavafy began when he and his family fled Alexandria; by lost and missing queer archives through time; and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems.