UK Gold’s documentary on tax avoidance features Cayman Islands
“From Zambia to the Cayman Islands, a huge, untold story unfurls which shakes notions of nationhood and empire.”
From UK’s Run Riot – Journalist Katie Antoniou talks to Mark Donne about his controversial new documentary ‘THE UK GOLD’
Our attention was recently drawn to a new documentary narrated by “The Wire” actor Dominic West with a new soundtrack from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, receiving a London premiere just as the G8 rolls out of town in June.
“The UK Gold” focuses on the singular, dominant role of Britain, its overseas territories and its financial heart the “City of London” in the rolling global scandal of systemic tax avoidance.
As Olympic gold medals pumped the UK with pride in 2012, vast financial hauls from across the planet were being secretly processed within a few miles of the Olympic stadium.
In the shadows of that stadium, one local resident took an equally daunting leap: to challenge one of the most powerful and clandestine institutions in the world.
Journalist and filmmaker Mark Donne’s second feature THE UK GOLD follows the dramatic battle of a Priest from a small parish in the poor London Borough of Hackney as he goes head to head with an ancient and mighty heavyweight, revealing its central status as the tax-haven capital of the world
From Zambia to the Cayman Islands, a huge, untold story unfurls which shakes notions of nationhood and empire.
Narrated by actor Dominic West (The Wire, The Hour), and featuring an extraordinary new sound-score from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, it incorporates the views and voices of British politicians, hedge fund masters of the universe, Vanity Fair investigative journalist Nicolas Shaxson, famous British satirical magazine Private Eye’s Richard Brooks and Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, to expose the fundamental role the City of London plays in the secretive network of tax havens and tax avoidance.
The screening at the Art Deco Troxy Theatre in East London on 25th June will be followed by a very special musical performance.
We spoke to Mark about what makes a nation, what makes a good soundtrack, and what action this film is going to make people want to take.
Katie Antoniou: I’m stealing my first question from your film’s website: ‘Apart from a flag, a sports team, or even a Queen, what makes a nation?’ Did you discover the answer?
Mark Donne: The simplistic answer is togetherness. We consolidate around big events, we identify with the use of a flag we’ve known our entire lives, and perhaps most of all, in this age of idolatry, we appear to coalesce most 
around a handful of figures involved in these big events, be they weddings or cup finals. It’s a strange glue. But togetherness or a sense of togetherness falls apart quite quickly when very powerful identities are able to operate quite outside of the parameters the rest of us recognise and live by.
KA: Tell us what it was like filming in East London while the Olympics were on.
MD: There was a duality to it. There was a visible fervour and happiness. I think the games sucked us all up in a way most of us, myself included, didn’t expect. But there was also a kind of knowingness about it too; that it was a hologram, it was beautiful but it was transient, like a summer fling. We all knew “goodbye” would come quickly and when it did, that it would hurt a bit; but that really it never could have lasted. Holograms never do.
KA: The film has a fantastic score by the likes of Thom Yorke, Robert del Naja and Guy Garvey- how do you go about deciding what music is right for a film’s soundtrack?
MD: It’s difficult with a film like this, with dense political themes travelling alongside a relatively simple “David and Goliath” current. I gave both Thom and 3D a very simple brief. They are extraordinarily alert and vital artists as well as gifted musicians; both were already tapped into the themes of the film, so the intelligence existed to generate a quick emotional or artistic response. They created a kind of “anti-score” that could convey the red meat politically – of hidden activity, hidden earnings and unbelievable political hypocrisy – but then also, simultaneously, to lift up the human odyssey of a person who decides to follow that trail, to understand it, try and talk to it, and ultimately, attempt to change it.
KA: Dominic West narrates the documentary- he’s played some pretty revolutionary Brits on our TV screens, including Oliver Cromwell- do you know how he felt about the message of UK Gold?
MD: My sense with Dominic is again, that he is a person who is intellectually/politically alert and concerned with the world around him and how it is made to work. His views are his own, but having discussed the core themes of the film with him, my sense is he is someone who believes in democracy in a meaningful form, and I think that he’s intuitively uncomfortable with anything that distorts that. But as I say, Dom’s views are his very much own.
KA: Who do you think most needs to see the film- if you could guarantee 3 politicians,bankers or similarly relevant figures would watch the film, who would you want them to be? Or are they all a lost cause?
MD: I think anyone who pays tax should watch this film and anyone who does not should also try their hardest not to avoid it. The film, that is.
KA: What action is the film going to make people want to take?
MD: That’s difficult to say. I sincerely hope they are entertained by it, moved by it, and I hope they enjoy the story. It’s a huge story with fantastic characters, they just all happen to be real, out there, moving and manipulating around us and above us. But of course, I hope they think about the heart of it. We’re in a moment, post 2008 financial crash, post-occupy, when things are beginning to settle. I hope this film helps people to stay alert. And make a point of watching more independent documentaries.
KA: What are you working on next?
MD: Almost the polar opposite of this film: after 14 months immersed in black politics and high finance I’m hankering creatively for humour and beauty. So it’s a documentary, but with a bit of panache, a touch of exhilaration, highfalutin music, and as many working visits to Paris within a year as my three year old girl will tolerate.
For more on this story go to:
and The UK Gold website: http://www.theukgold.co.uk/
To watch the trailer of The UK Gold go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2013/jun/06/uk-gold-trailer-documentary-tax-avoidance-video
