David Batty - My Generation

British film icon Michael Caine narrates and stars in My Generation, the vivid and inspiring story of his personal journey through 1960s London. Based on personal accounts and stunning archive footage, this feature-length documentary film sees Caine travel back in time to talk to The Beatles, Twiggy, David Bailey, Mary Quant, The Rolling Stones, David Hockney and other star names. The film has been painstakingly assembled over the last six years to tell the story of the birth of pop culture in London, through the eyes of the young Michael Caine: “For the first time in history the young working class stood up for ourselves and said: We’re here, this is our society and we’re not going away!” My Generation uses carefully intercut audio of Caine’s conversations with his co-stars blended with unseen archive material to take the movie viewer back to the heart of the 1960s. In one poignant sequence we accompany Caine as he drives through Piccadilly Circus today overlaid with original 60s film to create a remarkable time travel effect.

“We are here, this is our society and we are not going away” defines the life of my working class hero, Michael Caine. It’s why I owe such a debt to him and the ‘60s. We all do. It’s not just the songs, the films, the design, the photography, it’s also the freedom to challenge elitist hypocrisy, the opportunity to create your own moral code, the inspiration to be whoever you want whatever your background. Thanks to him and his likes, both my parents broke their working class shackles and gave me a better life. So this film is about that ‘60s revolution in London that still reverberates today. By the generation that changed the world forever. How Michael and his friends led the charge against the dead hand of Britain’s class-ridden establishment and in so doing created a new pop culture, defined the essence of cool and threw the greatest party the world has ever seen. He was there. We all are.