The Big Melt
| The Big Melt | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Martin Wallace |
| Produced by |
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| Music by | Jarvis Cocker |
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Release date
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12 June 2013 |
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Running time
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71 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Big Melt is a documentary film about the Sheffield steel industry which combines archive footage with a live soundtrack. It was made by Jarvis Cocker and filmmaker Martin Wallace for the 20th annual Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2013, to celebrate the centenary of the steel industry. The film was made using footage from the BFI National Archive. The film was commissioned by BBC Storyville and BBC North in association with the BFI, using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
The Big Melt followed From the Sea to the Land Beyond, a similar commission by Doc/Fest in 2012.
Cocker was initially reluctant to be involved because he felt that Sheffield's Steel City image was a cliché. He agreed to take part after seeing footage of a boy putting two fingers up to the camera in the early 1900s, which reminded him of Kes, the film by Ken Loach.The Big Melt was billed as 'a brand new kind of heavy metal music', and as 'a music and film journey into the soul of a nation, bringing to life the ghosts of our past, taking us into the belly of the furnaces and showing how our souls have been stamped from the mighty presses of our industrial heritage'. The restoration and screening of the archive footage was done as part of the BFI’s This Working Life: Steel project. The film shows the manufacturing processes and the social history of the people behind it, going as far back as 1900. There is no narration. It includes both colour and black-and-white film. Footage includes a girl making shells in a munitions factory during the First World War, men working on the Tyne Bridge, and a propagandist cartoon imagining a world without steel. The Guardian described the effect of the film as like "a really trippy educational video" and Wallace said he intended the film to be "fantastical, playful and challenging".The Observer called it "one of the best films ever to appear in the Storyville documentary strand".
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