Arts centre to host award-winning documentary

Matti Kohonen from Oxfam International will be on hand after the screening for a Q&A session and tax justice campaigners will be offering an informal workshop.
Image © The UK Gold.

An award-winning documentary that exposes the impact of global tax avoidance on developing countries will be screened in Cardiff.

‘The UK Gold’ will be shown at Chapter Arts Centre on Saturday 16 November, as part of a nationwide film tour organised by Action Aid, Christian Aid and Oxfam.

The film explores the City of London’s role in the tax avoidance industry, which robs poor countries of an estimated $160 billion a year.

Mari McNeill, Christian Aid coordinator for South East Wales, said: “Campaigners across Wales played a huge role this year in pushing for tax justice and transparency during the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign – we’re really excited to be showing this film in Cardiff as part of the UK tour.”

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/75059823[/vimeo]

More on the movie:

‘The UK Gold’ is told through the eyes of East London vicar, Reverend William Taylor, as he exposes global tax dodging and “stands up to the financial institutions of the City of London.”

The film was written and directed by Mark Donne, of independent film production collective Brass Moustache. It is narrated by The Wire’s Dominic West and boasts a soundtrack featuring music by Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

‘The UK Gold’ won the award for best documentary at this year’s East End Film Festival.

Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign:

The Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign was launched in 2013 as part of the national fight to end global hunger.

The campaign was supported by over 200 charities in the UK and thousands of people took part in meetings, events, stunts and rallies as a way of sending the campaign’s messages to the UK government.

One of the key issues the campaign wanted the government to address was tax avoidance – it argued that if the government stopped big companies from dodging tax in poor countries, millions of people would be freed of hunger.

The campaign was unsuccessful in persuading the government to reform UK tax laws but at the Trade, Transparency and Tax summit in June, all UK tax havens committed to sign a convention that will help to improve transparency and the G8 also pledged to tackle tax dodging at their summit.