Stop Press :

A special screening of Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble has been arranaged for Friday 14th December at 7.30pm at Friern Barnet Peoples Library.

The director and producer will be available for a short Q&A session after the film.

The screening will be followed by a night of music and poetry, featuring a very special reunion gig by film producer Roger Tichborne's band  "The False Dots" with their 1985 line up (first gig together for 27 years). Director Charles Honderick will also be performuing a selction of songs. 

A collection will be held for the legal fund to fight the One Barnet program. Please give generously.

A packed audience at the Phoenix Cinema for the Premiere

We have arranged a series of local screenings, please click on the screening info link in the side bar for further details

From the makers of the critically acclaimed documentary "A Tale of Two Barnets", comes a new film exposing the shocking way that Barnet Council are planning a huge gamble with your money.

Film maker Charles Honderick has spent 18 months interviewing people across Barnet to find how their lives have been affected by the cuts, service changes and policies of Barnet Council.

This shocking film lifts the lid on the way ordinary people are being neglected, whilst the Council wastes millions on pet projects

The film also includes an exclusive interview with award winning director, Ken Loach, talking about the danger to Barnets economy of outsourcing jobs and services.

 

Here is a preview.

STOP PRESS

See the ITV London Tonight news story about Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble


http://www.itv.com/news/london/story/2012-10-22/barnet-on-film/


http://www.itv.com/news/london/2012-10-22/life-in-barnet-captured-on-film/


http://www.itv.com/news/london/story/2012-10-22/barnet-on-film/


Breaking News - The film will be screened at the House of Commons on Monday 19th November at 7pm. Please see the screening info page for full details.


IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

To celebrate the official Premiere of Charles Hondericks film "Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble", the makers have released the full length version of "A Tale of Two Barnets" as a youtube film.

You can see the film on the website - http://ataleoftwobarnets.yolasite.com/


The film has been mentioned in an article in The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/12/friern-barnet-library-cuts-fight 


The Barnet Times has also given the film a write up

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9984745.Film_criticises_council_s_outsourcing_programme/?ref=mc



History

In September 2011, Charles Honderick,   a young film maker from Fort Lauderdale in the USA arrived in Barnet to make a small, low budget  documentary  film about  how the town where Charles Dickens workhouse was set, had changed in the 200 years since the birth of Dickens. What he found shocked him.  From the first  packed screening in March at the iconic Phoenix Cinema, the film made history.. It has since been shown at the House of Commons, The Edinburgh Festival, The UNISON Conference, and the TUC.

 

Charles was inundated with  requests from people who had seen the film, to dig deeper. In May 2012, Charles started work on Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble to give the residents of Barnet a voice and to make sure people know that the council are about to place a huge bet -  £1,000,000,000 with their money.  This bet is one  which multi national companies can only win whilst the taxpayer and the people who use council services will pick up the tab.Award winning director Ken Loach is featured talking about the risks of outsourcing as well as the way Barnet Council don't care about the ordinary people . They have even outsourced our football team to Harrow !

 

Testimonials

Kate Belgrave - Journalist - The interviews are the great part of it - really impressive

Ken Loach- Film Director - In the film you will hear some of the stories about the privations people are undergoing. It's particularly savage if you are disabled or you are old.

Julian Silverman - Pensioner and Barnet resident - The people of Barnet are humane and intelligent enough to run their borough democratically for themselves.