Projects matching: Esther Johnson

Synopsis

DUST & METAL (CAT BUI & KIM LOAI) brings together for the first time a live cinema documentary featuring past and present stories of freedom in Vietnam. With a population of 97 million, and 45 million registered motorbikes (the highest in South East Asia) that’s almost one bike for every two people. The urban roads and ‘hem’ alleys are only accessible by two-wheels. These roads are awash with the transportation of goods of all types and sizes on the back of motorbikes, including washing machines, entire families, and chickens. The sounds of engines and horns create a symphony of Vietnamese life. In a unique partnership with the Vietnam Film Institute, archive film is edited alongside contemporary footage and a live score composed/performed by Vietnamese artist Xo Xinh.
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2022 - Rhythms - World premiere

Synopsis

a ROLE to PLAY brings together the lived experiences and dreams of Bolsover residents, one of the most deprived towns in the middle of England. The film tells stories of the impact of economic changes in a post-industrial Derbyshire constituency where coal was once king.

Synopsis

The story of what happened to an English town during World War One with almost all of its men fighting abroad and its women and children left behind. The North East was in the front line, thanks to its shipyards and munitions factories.
Using archive and contemporary footage and audio, this film collages the stories of people from Tyneside and Wearside to uncover just what life was like on the home front, with bombs falling on Britain for the first time, conscientious objectors sentenced to death, and women working as doctors, tram conductors and footballers. The narrative moves from an Edwardian golden era, in which sport grew in popularity and aircraft and cars pointed to a bright new future, to a war that horrifically reversed this progress. In the Battle of the Somme, British, French and German armies fought one of the most traumatic battles in military history. Over the course of just four months, more than one million soldiers were captured, wounded or killed in a confrontation of unimaginable horror.

Synopsis

Through a series of oral testimonies and carefully composed portraits, Alone Together, the Social Life of Benches explores how individuals and groups spend time in two distinctive public London locations.

Made by Esther Johnson as part of an Arts & Humanities Research Council project, this poetic documentary illuminates the thoughts and memories of frequent users of General Gordon Square, Woolwich, and St Helier Open Space, Sutton.

Revolving around the micro-space of the humble bench, the film incorporates contributions from a diverse range of visitors. These testimonies highlight themes such as the psychological feeling of being in a space, the rhythm and flow of visitors to a place, the importance of design for everyday street furniture and access to communal outdoor space.

The film acts like a stranger who joins you to ‘watch the world go by’, and to break the ice by starting a conversation with their fellow bench user.

Synopsis

As a child in the 1950s, Ron Cockroft drew a chalk line from his school in Oldham to his home in Chadderton. Chalk Trace commemorates and reanimates his graffiti journey through a now much-changed network of streets. The film was photographed in the original streets of Oldham as they stand today – over 60 years after Ron’s original graffiti.

Synopsis

When Madge Elliot complained about the announced closure of her local train station in Hawick, her mother told her to do something about it, and that’s just what she did. It’s Quicker By Hearse The Tale of the Petitioning Housewife, the Protesting Schoolboy and the Campaign Trail Student tells the story of Elliot who, together with her 11-year-old son Kim, Harry Brown the piper and Edinburgh University Railway Society president Bruce McCartney, marched to Downing Street to deliver a petition of 11,768 signatures on 18 December 1968. When final closure was penciled for January 7 1969, Madge and her campaign group continued their protest by posting a coffin on the last train to leave Hawick station and travel to London. The coffin was emblazoned with the words ‘Waverley Line – born 1848 killed 1969’ and was addressed to the then Minister of Transport Richard Marsh.

This work investigates how the national changes recommended in the infamous Beeching report, titled The Reshaping of British Railways, impacted Elliot and her local community. Like Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel Waverley (the railway lines namesake), Elliot’s grassroots campaign raised questions of the need for social progress that does not reject the traditions of the past.

Synopsis

An observation, investigation and social record of the lives and thoughts of ten residents of the Golden Lane Estate, London. Built in the late 1950s by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the Golden Lane estate exemplifies an utopian ideal of social housing. This film documents the life of the complex over half a century since its construction and asks questions about domestic and private space and of making a home in such an iconic and distinctive architectural environment.

Synopsis

Gerald Wells stole his first radio, a Belmont, in 1943 at the age of thirteen. He was immediately sent to an approved school, whose psychiatrist diagnosed an obsession with wireless and electricity, an obsession that continues today.

The house Wells was born in and still inhabits is now home to over 1,500 wireless objects and 45,000 valves. Analogue Kingdom is a poetic portrait of Wells, founder and curator of the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum. It reveals the charm of Wells' world, where radio relics and their attendant stories fill every nook and cranny.

Synopsis

A contemplative, static study of an unlikely landmark in an unlikely place. Normally only glimpsed in passing, Stott Hall Farm, a cottage built in 1737, floats islandlike in the middle if the M62 in West Yorkshire, whilst cars and lorries thunder past on both sides. Despite the farm seemingly being a monument to stubbornness, the urban myth being that the farmer refused to leave when the motorway was built in the 1970s, the truth of the story is that the east- and westbound carriageways could not meet due to the lie of the land, and the motorway had to be parted around the cottage to avoid landslips.

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Taking the form of an experimental portrait, 'Celestial' explores the poetry of the sky, a space of fascination and contemplation.

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'Do you love me?', 'Yes', he said, and then - a colourful musical journey into the narrative of a woman’s tangled past, with magical glimpses of her present world and hopes for a liberated future.

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An astute and affectionate portrait of the unseen community of HAM radio enthusiasts. The space age hobby where the world is your friend.