PITMEN who have never publicly discussed the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike open up for the first time in the new documentary Still The Enemy Within.

Winner of the 2014 Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award, Owen Gower's film will be shown on Monday at 6.15pm at City Screen, York, where producers Sinead Kirwan and Mark Lacey will attend a question-and-answer session afterwards.

2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the year when, as the film teaser puts it, "Thatcher went to war". The documentary focuses on "the miners who fought back", combining new interviews with photography from the 84/85 strike from previously undeveloped film, while director Gower considers the impact of the strike on the British economy and on how protests are conducted today.

Interest in one of British industrial history's most dramatic, incendiary events has risen anew, not only because of the 30th anniversary, but also as a result of the heightened publicity brought about by North Yorkshire director Matthew Warchus's hit filmPride. Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Paddy Considine and Dominic West star in the true story of a London lesbian and gay theatre group raising funds for a Welsh pit community in 1984.

That was the year when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government took on the strongest union in the country, the National Union of Mineworkers, implementing a plan to close mines that threatened not only an industry but whole communities and a way of life. In response, 160,000 miners took up the fight and became part of a battle that prompted the Prime Minister to label them as "the enemy within".

Hence the choice of name for a film that records the events of 1984-1985 with "no experts, no politicians". Instead it presents the raw first-hand experience of those who lived through Britain's longest strike, charting the highs and lows of a life-changing year for a group of miners and supporters on the frontline by drawing together personal experiences, whether tragic, terrifying or amusing.

Among those featured are Norman Strike, who devised ingenious ways of slipping past police road blocks in the key battleground of Nottingham and suddenly found himself a minor celebrity after a mishap on national television. Paul Symonds's story takes him from the optimism of a young man fighting for his future to the tragic death of his best friend on a picket line, while Joyce Sheppard recalls how she went from housewife to political activist, facing violence as the police were sent into Yorkshire villages to break the strike.

They are joined on screen by others who fought alongside them to give a frank, emotional and ultimately inspiring account of ordinary people at the centre of extraordinary events, not least the Battle of Orgreave, where Yorkshire miners found themselves in a confrontation with 5,000 policemen. Ultimately, Gower counsels looking again at our past so that ,in the words of one miner, “we can still seek to do something about the future”.

Welcoming the film's release, veteran political film-maker Ken Loach says: "The mainstream media didn’t tell the truth about the miners’ strike when it happened. And the same lies are still being told. It’s therefore important that we tell this story.”

Tickets can be booked on 0871 902 5726 or at picturehouses.co.uk