In the Same Breath

Director: Daksha Patel

Year: 2017

The animation was made as a result of an artist’s residency at University of Manchester, and the soundtrack is from voice recordings of interviews by medical humanities researchers at the university. The voices describe sudden and profound changes in people’s lives that alter their perceptions and sense of identity. The animation takes us on a journey through the social, psychological and physiological impact of a life-changing event. It is an intimate portrait of a group of individuals.

Director: Daksha Patel

Year: 2022

A performer is filmed inside a Life Science Museum wearing a costume created from objects preserved and classified in the collections. Children recite the names of species on the red list whilst a scientist carefully labels specimens. The animated film explores themes of biodiversity and human/non-human life.

Director: Sadia Pineda Hameed

Year: 2026

ANAK WHERE DID WE STAY? is a five-channel film by Sadia Pineda Hameed that brings together The Box’s home movie collection and the artist’s personal/family collection. Rasheed Araeen’s chakras, spouting waves, Beatlesmania, a basking shark, hula dance, an Enoch Powell protest, tidal islands and seafoam floating into the air—the archives converge across time to tell the story of the artist’s mother’s migration from one archipelago to another: the Philippines to the British Isles. The film becomes a gathering site for personal and collective experiences of journeys, resilience and belonging. Road trips unexpectedly reenact the archive, footage finds itself out of context, voices commentate the film as if rewatching a home movie together; mimesis, associations and autonomy are central to the retelling. As camcorders became more accessible from the 1970s onwards, home movies were an unconscious means to rebuild personal archives after colonial displacement, extraction and erasure. ANAK WHERE DID WE STAY?, named after the home movie from The Box’s archive 'Perranporth Where Did We Stay?', unfolds as a conversation between the artist and her mother, exploring the three interconnected journeys of migration, holidays and remembering. Produced as part of The Box’s Reimagining the Film Archive programme (BFI Screen Heritage Fund).