Battle of Soho

The movie has truly great opening. It invites viewer to the underground world of Soho – both sleazy and magical at the same time. Then the actual movie starts and everything falls apart. The movie consists mostly of interviews. We meet extravagant performers, local business owners and activists. For some Soho is a memory of their gone youth for others it is place where they found acceptance and now are forced to defend their second home from real estate developers who want to change it to just another part of London. Regardless of who is speaking you can feel that Soho is extremely important to them but we never get to hear their stories as director is jumping between speakers not getting deeper with any of them.

My main issue with this movie is that it lacks both focus and good decisions. What this movie is about because honestly I don't know. If it wanted to show the variety of people living in Soho and it's local culture – great. If it wanted to show how democracy is failing against big corporate system using forceful changes on Soho as a baseline for discussion – again, great. Instead we get a little of this, a little of that and in the end we get nowhere just one giant mess. Not only that but one of the subplots involves a fight of a single mother to get a replacement housing because she is being evicted from her flat. This whole subplots feels completely out of place. I really wonder if director took time to think about why he is putting this part of the interview in the movie – what this scene means to the movie, is it funny, does it offer a strong point or is it just wasting time?

I find it amazing that music in this movie is so messed up. In some scenes I feel like somebody forgot to normalize volumes so if character on screen was loud I would get screamed at as well, experience far from enjoyable. The other thing I would notice is that on numerous occasion halfway the interview the background music would start playing and getting progressively louder to the point that it was very difficult to understand what the speaker was saying.

The movie has, sort of, main characters: a queer, a transvestite activist and local artist. They are given more screen time than others and are regularly revisited thought the movie between interviews. All three annoyed me. What's worse the movie presented much more interesting characters whose stories I would be much more fascinated to hear.

In some movies at the end of the movie there is a writing saying what happened after the end of the action of the movie, what was the follow up. This is is used here as well on several cases but it's used poorly. We get letters to read (long section) on very active background. So as the viewer should I be reading or looking at action in the background because both are asking for my attention.

The film ends with 10 minute sequence of an elderly gay man dancing on the beach. Was this supposed to be artistic or kamp? As a matter of fact who cares – one more bad decision when whole movie is build upon bad decisions won't make much difference anyway.

People connected to Soho show passion when talking about it and the place deserve a better movie. Something done with skill, at least some. Truly hated the movie and that I paid any money for it.

This is such an important subject, deserving of a fantastic documentary. So sad that this was not it. This was such lazy, random filmmaking I can't believe it ever made it to cinemas. A bunch of rambling interviews with some mates of the director, no discussion of subculture, sex work, women, the larger forces at play, no questions put to the other side, no research. Offensively bad.

Over the last two years I've stopped watching Hollywood movies for several reasons that I won't go into here. I prefer to watch films by independent producers, and that's how I stumbled across "The Battle of Soho." I've walked through the streets of Soho on the odd occasion, but I have never really had an opinion about the place. All I've heard about this town is that it's the "Red Light District" of London. I had no interest or attachment to Soho whatsoever, until I watched this documentary.

The title of the film is what drew my attention. I wanted to know what the "battle" was all about, and what I discovered was not what I was expecting. I was assuming that it would be about local residents trying to drive out the prostitutes or something of that nature. Instead, I learnt about the history and attempted gentrification of a town that its residents and loyal visitors love and are very passionate about.

Let me start by saying that the production was fantastic; it was more like a documentary than a film. It featured real people, and captured real emotion. Unless you have a heart of stone, you will feel the immense pain and suffering of these people. To be honest, before I watched the film, gentrification was not something I even thought about. I live in Kent, no one is trying to dig up my home to make the area more modern and drive out the poor. However, now I have a heart for the people who are faced with this struggle.

There were several scenes in the film that were extremely moving. I wish I could talk about them all, but space won't allow me to do so. What I learnt is that Soho is a place for non conformists, it has a huge LGBT community, there are a lot of clubs and bars that cater to their lifestyle. The majority of the places that were being shut down so that this railway station could be built, were the places that this community socialise and live their lives without feeling threatened by a society that doesn't accept their lifestyle.

There was one man in particular who really touched my heart. He was a bald male escort/activist who had a very dominant voice in the fight against the destruction of this community. When he heard that a club called "The Black Cap" had been shut down, he broke down in tears. This scene was heartbreaking to me.

Another scene that was both powerful and emotional, was the campaign for a lady called Marian to be re-housed. I can't remember the full story, but she was being evicted by the council so they could build something, and at the same time refusing to re-house her. The bald male escort/Activist, and many others from the community stood with this woman shoulder to shoulder and fought to have her re-housed. Due to the publicity that her case received, partly as a result of this documentary, Marian and her children were moved into another property.

At the end of the documentary one of the people being interviewed said: "If you really believe in something get involved." I applaud everyone who took part in this film and stood up for something they believed in. I applaud the producers of this film who chose to assist this community in their fight instead of trying to be the next big Hollywood movie directors making huge profits but having no impact.

I was also saddened that Johnny Deluxe, one of the participants in the documentary died in 2017. He had a powerful voice, and he used it well. Rest in peace!

Although this is not my fight, I will remember each person who starred in this film, and the people who made it in prayer. Thank you for such an inspirational and moving narrative.