Hayley Squires and Dave Johns in “I, Daniel Blake" at the Figge Art Museum -- October 1.
Thursday, October 1, 6 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
A Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner that also netted the 2017 BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film, director Ken Loach's critically revered I, Daniel Blake enjoys an October 1 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, this contemporary drama the first in the Free Film at the Figge series showcasing distinguished, award-winning works that depict the essential roles that persistence and perseverance play in our everyday lives.
In Loach's and screenwriter Paul Laverty's film, Newcastle's 59-year-old widowed carpenter Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), having recently suffered a major heart attack at work, has been ordered by his doctors to stay out of any vigorous action and rest. However, after a negative employment support assessment, he is deemed ineligible for compensation, not scoring enough points to obtain benefits. Without any income or a pension, desperate and frustrated from the endless, dead-end conversations over the phone with the impersonal government health-care agents, Daniel will visit the welfare office to make an appeal, only to face in person the draconian civil servants and to be consumed by a faceless system and its bureaucratic jargon. Yet against all odds, with perseverance and courage, this modern working-class hero chooses to boldly stand up for himself and for others in need, withstanding nobly the humiliation while reminding that, above all, we are all human by default.
Upon its 2016 release in Great Britain, I, Daniel Blake used a variety of marketing strategies to make sure Ken Loach's points got across to his targeted audience and that the film reached a wider audience, including disruptive marketing, street displays and newspaper inclusions. Ken Loach worked with the Trinity Mirror through the use of the editorial column of The Mirror and each newspaper had the "I" changed to reflect the main font of the film. The Trinity Mirror also provided 10,000 free tickets to see the movie as announced in one of their newspapers and used Daniel Blake as the masthead for its papers. The House of Commons and other major buildings in London had projections of Daniel Blake's end speech placed onto the outside walls as part of its "Guerrilla Marketing Campaign."
On the 27 October 2016 episode of the BBC topical debate program Question Time, which had Loach as a panellist, the Conservative Party's then-Business Secretary Greg Clark described the film as "fictional" and said, "It's a difficult job administering a benefits system. Department for Work and Pensions staff have to make incredibly difficult decisions and I think they should have our support in making those decisions." Loach responded by criticizing the pressure that DWP staff are placed under: "We talked to hundreds of people who work at the DWP under your guidance and instructions, and they are told to sanction people. If they don't sanction them, they're in trouble." He later said, "When you're sanctioned your life is forced into chaos, and people are going to food banks. How can we live in a society where hunger is used as a weapon?"
I, Daniel Blake will be screened in Davenport's John Deere Auditorium on October 1, with the Figge Bar open at 5 p.m. (cards only) and the movie starting at 6 p.m. Admission is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
