Cold Warnings is an Arts Council England funded, York St John University project
which explores the legacy of the inclusion of the Cold War as a topic in the first GSCE Curriculum in 1986. The result is a film based around reflections from those who studied this at the time, and contains insights from GCSE students today. The result is a deeply poignant and thought-provoking intergenerational film, drawing upon memory and contemporary reactions.
This website includes articles, reflections and artwork from students, teachers and practitioners, academics, journalists and historians, which add to the ongoing discussion concerning the resonance and relevance of late Cold War culture.
Threads
Mick Jackson’s seminal 1984 British film Threads was taught in schools before on the new curriculum. Based in Sheffield, it depicts the preparation and build-up of a nuclear attack, the devastation of the attack itself, and its horrendous consequences.
Z for Zachariah
We invited groups of young people were either currently taking or had recently sat their GCSEs and asked them to reflect upon Threads and Z for Zachariah as texts studied during the late 1980s. We also asked them to consider any connections between these fictions in the light of life in the 21st Century.