The Belles

A group of women who are pushing on into their Autumn years, don some silver wigs, put on their sparkliest jackets, ruffle up their skirts, and prepare to put on a show to inject some Carnival atmosphere into the lives of the Bradford locals.

The Bradford Belles are fed up of being overlooked in their daily lives as ‘invisible’ women in their sixties, with silver and grey in their hair, joints that don’t work as well as they used to, and their ‘jobs’ as mothers over with. They don’t buy into the hype that they’re ‘past it’ and have nothing much to offer society any more, with people dismissing them as gentle old ladies who just need to sit down with a cuppa and a chocolate biccie. Instead, they’re coming together, getting glammed up in their party gear, putting on their best moves, and getting out and about as the funnest, craziest, most enjoyable dance troupe in the neighbourhood.

Based on the American carnival sensation, The Red Hot Mamas, the party atmosphere was picked up by Judy, also known as ‘Disco Belle’, and transposed to Bradford to see what it could do for the elderly generation of ladies who lived there – and so the Bradford Belles were born. With names such as ‘Jazzer Belle’, ‘Diva Belle’, ‘Boho Belle’, ‘Baroness Belle’, and ‘Boobie Belle’, these Bradford ladies are bucking the trend and defying the naysayers to show just what women of a certain vintage are still capable of.

Rather than just stay at home and read or watch telly in their favourite comfortable armchair, The Belles want to keep themselves, and others, moving, talking, socialising, and having fun for as long as they can manage it. So, each week they come together in a local shared space and put together new performances, with which to wow local audiences when they reveal them to the public. Intent on staving off the cobwebs of old-age, and the stigma that has been attached to them by others, the Bradford Belles are a local community group like no other.

Filmed and presented to us by filmmaker Jon King, he follows The Belles around as they’re getting ready for their newest carnival sensation. From a quick intro of talking heads, we are then thrust front and centre into the preparations for the upcoming performance, and are afforded the opportunity to chat to a few of them in turn. Most of the exposition comes from the ladies themselves in this way, as they chat to one another about what it means to be part of something like The Belles, but every so often we also get to have a more up-close and personal chat with individuals as they explore deeper into what The Belles provides for them.

Feeling a lot more like an extended piece for BBC News 24 rather than a full-on cinematic documentary, King gives us nearly half-an-hour to settle in and find out what we can about the Bradford Belles. There are no frills to the production, save for a few nice pieces of background music, and the footage and audio is left mostly bare as we watch and listen to what’s right in front of us. There are a few fades here and there, but nothing more advanced than that editorially or directorially, and we are left with a few drone shots of Bradford, along with a few establishing shots of buildings and streets, to satisfy us in terms of context.

While The Belles is a fun, personal, snapshot of a group of women who are doing something to fight for their own mental and physical health, there is nothing extra added into the documentary to help engage the viewer further. It’s great to spend half-an-hour in the company of such fun and vibrant women, and to learn about what helps keep them going from day to day, but sadly any star appeal comes from them alone and not from any razzamatazz that the production has added to the proceedings.