Ray Barron-Woolford celebrates his award winning film Liberty
(Image via Ray)
The following is a Question and Answer session with Ray Barron- Woolford FRSA based in Deptford, London on his creative works inspired by Kath Duncan, “The Last Queen of Scotland”.
1. Q) Please introduce yourself Ray and tell us a little about your background and activism?
A) I am a lifetime community and social justice – civil rights activist who started life via the Care system and was homeless before becoming successful by establishing the first UK social enterprise to house gay people during the AIDS crisis. To run a business like this at the time was a crime as Gay business like this were unlawful, how crazy was that?
2. Q) You have written a book, play, and documentary film about Kath Duncan, could you please introduce us to her as a political and social activist. When did you first come across her name and what drew you in to find out more?
A) I discovered Kath Duncan whilst seeking ways to the fund my Food Bank in 2014 after several local Deptford Residents told me I was the new Kath Duncan. No other person in UK history was so active at the leadership level on so many social justice and civil rights campaigns, fighting for the rights of Woman and LGBTQ, whilst also opposing fascism, poor housing, lack of money, education and welfare for the poor. What made her so different was she took on the power of the state and went to jail but won almost every battle she fought and lead in a way that was extremely rare for a woman in this period with no money or a wealthy husband.
3. Q) I understand your book, “The Last Queen of Scotland” was the first of your 3 main creative works on Kath, what made you choose that title?
A) When Kath Duncan died in 1952, thousands of people came onto Deptford High Street in south- east London to mourn their loss and the crowd, with so much she had won for them, all discussed the many campaigns they had fought alongside Kath. The leader of the public rally asked the crowd,
“How should we, how can we remember a woman, one of us who has achieved so much”? A voice from the crowd declared, “she may have been one of us but she was a Scot.” The newspapers at the time would regularly call her the “Peoples Queen”, therefore I felt “The Last Queen of Scotland” was a great title for my book biography of Kath Duncan.
4. Q) What were your main aims in writing this book?
A) To raise funds for my food bank which is still the case today and put right the injustice that a “working class hero” as important as Kath Duncan deserved to be a National Treasure. Since my work, Kath now has a Bench in Deptford Park, London, a mural in London and her home town of Kirkcaldy, Scotland. Through my work, she has a voice and statues, that she now has in death, which inspire others as she had in life.
5. Q) Why do you think Kath was until recently almost lost in history?
A) Working class history heroes, who took on the system and won, rarely have their stories told. I believe if more people knew about these heroes, people would mobilize and organize to do much more to create a better world. By the state NOT telling these stories it keeps the public in their place, being a left Hero also is not something the establishment is comfortable with even today. This is in part why my book could not get a UK publisher. They said the Left doesn’t buy books or watch these films, so I had to publish in the USA although book is widely on sale online and in the UK, whilst my film is yet to screened in Scotland. We should be all asking why Scotland is so uncomfortable screening my film or restoring Kath as a “National Scottish Hero”.
6. Q) You wrote the screenplay for “Liberty”, a play about Kath, what were the challenges of portraying her life on stage?
A) How do you tell a Story about a great woman who fought so many campaigns? I chose to focus on her role in winning the right to free speech and the right to protest. She was the Malcolm X, the Martin Luther King of her age. So, with Civil Rights still under attack, I felt that how we won these rights and why we need to defend them would be a play without a sell by date and by writing original songs it would reach a much wider audience. My publisher said, my works market was for 35 years plus age group. I discovered that by adding music and dance the play attracted huge numbers of children as well as adults, sitting for over one hour spell bound, without a single one using their phones during the performance.
7. Q) Your book and play were already well received before you began work on the documentary, how do you think they changed the way Kath is viewed and her role in history?
A) It created a platform for historians and societies across the UK to take time to discover this woman that they knew nothing about until my work on Kath. This also led to a Wikipedia page and invites people globally to talk about her life and work and that is still happening today.
8. Q) What obstacles did Kath have to overcome in her lifetime on a personal level?
A) She was 5 feet 2 inches tall, very shy, and very poor. Her mum did sewing to keep her girls from the workhouse as her dad died when Kath was only 5 years of age. She won a scholarship to school and university. As a Scottish suffragette, she became friends with Clementine Hozier who would go on to marry the most important “Man of the Age”, Winston Churchill. This gave Kath Duncan influence and power way beyond her class and statue.
9. Q) You took on the project of making a documentary about Kath, what do you think this achieved above and beyond the book and play?
A) Liberty, the film, was made to tell history in a totally different way. As so many see history as the past, I wanted to make a film that inspired people by showing how each one of us making a single step can change the world whilst showing how the battles and struggle of the past shape how we live today.
10. Q) Your documentary on Kath has been a great success and now won awards, how many have you received and is there anyone that is particularly special to you?
A) I never expected to win any awards, who would expect a film about an LGBTQ Scottish Feminist Working Class Hero would become the most successful film across all genre in the 2023 Film Festival season winning 50 Global Film awards across 5 continents. My documentary also won Best Political Film of the Year in the US, Best Humanitarian Film in Cairo, Egypt, and Best Script in Spain. Liberty was also the last LGBTQ film to win awards and be screened in Russia and Uganda before their Governments made the promotion of LGBTQ rights a crime. Just sad that a film this powerful about such an important UK hero is not screened in schools or on UK mainstream TV.
11. Q) You chose me to feature in both your play and documentary, I was surprised, touched, and honoured, what made you choose me?
A) I think the world we live in today with so many issues, means that many turn away, thinking they do not have the skills or ability to make a difference. I wanted to show that you and Kath were no different to any other woman angry about social injustice or any other campaign issues. By highlighting this fact, it shows how we take a stand is what makes us different not how we have been born.
12. Q) What do you consider to be Kath’s legacy to the world and her most important achievements?
A) Winning the Rights to Free Speech and the Right to Protest and Winning on the streets without money, power or influence but having a just cause and building a community in solidarity is still very NOW and is something almost every country in the World is in need off as our Civil rights globally continue to be under attack. This is why I think everyone needs to watch this film.
13. Q) Has your work on Kath changed you as a person and if so, how?
A) I never thought as an activist I could make films, Kath showed me i could do whatever I set my mind to.
14) Q) Finally, thank -you for educating and enlightening us about Kath… do you have any thoughts on what your next project might be?
A) I have Grown to love film making, you can watch some of my films on Vimeo on Demand just search my name. My latest project launches Black History Month, October 2024, on Afeni Shakur and the trial of the Black Panther 21. It tells the true story of Afeni Shakur, who, when pregnant with her son who became the rapper Tupac Shakur, was charged with 156 charges of terrorism in 1969. With no legal training and with the USA President plus the country’s legal system and head of the FBI after her, Afeni fought her own defence. She was found not guilty on every charge in what was at the time, the longest trial in USA history. My film covers this case and focuses on the woman who shaped the Black Panthers whilst covering the extraordinary legacy that the Black Panthers left behind and that has improved the lives of millions of Americans black, brown and white. This is a story of an ordinary “working class woman” taking on the system and winning. She was a woman not unlike Kath Duncan but a story this time that I have written to qualify for Bafta and Oscar listing because these stories need a Global commercial audience. This film should not just become a massive global film hit but should also lead to greater awareness of Kath Duncan and invite others globally to tell stories of their heroes that should and need to be told and shared to inspire everyone to make a stand in these dark times.
Thanks for this my Friend. People can watch my work by searching my name on Vimeo on Demand, the streaming service.
Thank-you Ray for a fascinating and enlightening interview.
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She was a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.
