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I'm delighted to announce that I'm now a mother, and will therefore be focussing most (if not all!) of my energy on my son for the next few years... However, I still managed to finish the final edit of this dance film with him on my lap/ in a sling/ asleep next to me, and I've entered it into the Exeter Dance International Film Festival, happening in October. Here's a couple of stills from the film, 'Borderlines'...
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A few weeks ago, I went to film the dancers at the Southwest Dance Hub, to explore various ways for the dancers to interact with the camera, and for us film makers to practise movement and framing with the dancers... The line between us was blurred, as we all joined in movement exercises (totally out of my usual comfort zone!) and the dancers filmed each other as well... This was one of our first experiments, totally improvised on a grey and sombre day when most of the dancers were absent due to illness. I went home and played around with layering what we'd filmed and managed to make myself cry while doing it, so I reckon it's worth sharing here... What a brilliant opportunity to be inspired and learn together! Thank you to these beautiful, talented and endlessly expressive dancers, Winnie Guy and Ruth Bell, and thanks to Laura Denning for additional footage. A promotional documentary for Kathy Nettles, an artist living and working in North Devon. Her style of painting flows and changes over time, as she too changes with each new day. This film demonstrates her current practice: abstract expressionism inspired by the autumn landscape. As Kathy writes to explore her subject, we begin the film with an abstract poem that brings out the colours from the fading season, and then she takes us deeper in to what drives her to keep painting. Come and see my latest film, Greenwash, this Sunday 28th Nov at Leadworks in Plymouth from 6pm. It’s part of a special mixer event by Cine Sisters Southwest (who commissioned the film) with free workshops from 1pm, and films showing from 6pm followed by Q&A with the artists. My film is abstract and experimental, symbolising how I feel about the environmental crisis and what’s going on in the world, the sense of impending doom, the greenwashing by big businesses and politicians, and also how I have to sometimes partially greenwash my own brain just to stay sane for a while and not panic. I wish we could wash it all away: the crisis, the anxiety, the feeling of slipping under and drowning... but we can't. My film references (in an abstract way) seed sovereignty, rising sea levels, chemical and pesticide pollution, oil and fossil fuels, carbon footprints, brainwashing/ lies, the cells within our bodies; our blood being potentially full of pollution and yet still full of potential... For more details, search "cinesisterssw" on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
...And the nice intro they gave me...   I’m working on a film called Greenwash, thanks to sponsorship from the wonderfulCine Sisters Southwest. Today I made an underwater view of my feet on the beach with dirty waves lapping in and out... The film is abstract and experimental, symbolising how I feel about the environmental crisis and what’s going on in the world, the sense of impending doom, the greenwashing by big businesses, politicians and COP26, and also how I have to sometimes partially greenwash my own brain just to stay sane and make it through the day. We are all guilty and all responsible. Expletive, expletive. It’s rather anxty! The film will be shown at the end of November in Plymouth - more details coming up soon. I made this short film for a job interview to make a campaign for the future Forest of Dean Biosphere Reserve... They wanted it to be multi-sensory as much as possible, to enable people with sight and hearing disabilities to experience the film as well, so I used text, spoken word and sound design to describe what was happening visually. The competition was tough and I didn't get it (my films are educational and engaging but not persuasive enough to change fixed mindsets) but I'm still glad I made this little example film and they gave me some very positive feedback which was a boost in itself. The film symbolises the marriage of people and nature, the cyclical relationship of giving and taking over time, asking "what has the landscape given me? What can I give back?" I made a short documentary about tanning deer skins the traditional way, using oak bark, with expert leatherworker, Katy Warriner. Filmed on Dartmoor for Woodlands TV. Making something out of grief, using these pictures to represent #miscarriage as they remind me of ultrasound images; the extreme close up how it felt to know a tiny life was growing inside me, the black, white and grey when the radiant power of that little life went dark. The look of old film to represent things past, the softness of flowers my nurturing body, the spikes of the thistle that something was wrong and the intense pain, both physical and emotional. I'm not alone, almost every mother I know has had at least one #pregnancyloss. Let all the flowers in this series represent a life loved and lost. I used a macro adaptor on a 17mm lens and almost pressed the camera up against the flowers to get this effect. I like it. My heart hurts. Every day moving, growing, expanding towards a future bright and full, forming a picture of how it will be, who we will be together when you're born.....And then it all turns backwards, inside out, all wrong, it wasn't supposed to be like this, can't I put you back inside?.... and then slowly breaking apart all the newly forged connections, the mental structures dismantled in a fragmented mirror image of all we had imagined. #miscarriage I don't usually air personal stuff onto the internet but this is different. So many women and their partners go through this and we rarely hear anything about it, probably because it's tragic, desperately sad and we can't do anything about it except move on. I feel it needs honouring and representing in pictures, this experience that highlights our mortality and human connection through suffering and loss. I do feel connected with all the others who've experienced this and I hope that my images might be seen and appreciated by others who might not have the words or means to express their loss externally.
#Puppets and #opera... in the Popera House with @bluebirdstheatre, photographing their fantastically funny performance of The Reduced Ring Cycle. #eventphotography #performance#theatre As the #eventphotographer for this special screening organised by @cinesisterssw, I moved silent and catlike across the cinema floor with ninja-stealth (?!🙃😬😆) to capture the audience engrossed in these films by south west female film makers at #exeterphoenix .... My award winning short film Inside was part of the screening as well and it was great to see it on the big screen. Our film, Inside, was featured in the 2021 Love Story Film Festival, in the International Shorts programme – and we won 'Best Short-Short'.
I've made two short films with fellow artist Lois Norman, and thanks to her entering them into film festivals worldwide, we keep on winning things! Before you ask, I'm afraid you can't watch them online yet as they are still doing the festival circuit. The first film we worked on together was Swivel, a gender fluid dance film, for which I did the sound design. It's won numerous awards for all sorts of things, most recently crediting me with Best Sound Design at the New York Movie Awards! The second is a film that sprung from a group project I facilitated during the second UK lockdown, shortly after Lois's father died. She had written a spoken word piece for his funeral, and I created some black and white imagery to illustrate her words that won me the Best Visual Effects award, as well as two others for Best At Home Covid 19, and Best Narrator for Lois. Gosh!
After learning about how trees communicate with each other in the book 'The Hidden Life of Trees', nurseryman Philip Nieuwoudt was inspired to plant a little oak woodland on a corner of his land in South Devon, so that the trees could talk to each other. As a creative person who spends his days growing multi-stem ornamental trees for landscape designers, Philip decided to plant his oaks in a spiral, so that hundreds of years from now, they might be seen from above and wondered at by anyone flying past... It's also an example of a healthy seven-year-old woodland in a meadow rich with unexpected biodiversity. Thanks to Philip Nieuwoudt at New Wood Trees: www.newwoodtrees.co.uk In this film, we visit the Morton family – Andy, Jane, and five-year-old Thomas – to ask how they use the woodland and what each of them loves most about being in their woods. With plenty of imagination and hard work, they've used the space and its abundant natural resources to create opportunities for a range of activities with different groups of people: building beautiful structures, shelters and a private family cabin for overnight stays; as a resource for forest school activities and running craft courses; using wood, water and clay from the land; being with friends and meeting other young families, and as a special place where they can simply be together, with everything they need to be comfortable away from home. What would you do with a woodland of your own? A film for Woodlands TV by Jemma Cholawo at Sallerton Wood. www.sallertonwood.org.uk
Growing a Woodland: Ten Years In Pam Macdonald introduces us to her now ten-year-old woodland at Higher Druid Wood on the edge of Dartmoor, showcasing the different species and reasons for growing, including carbon capture, climate resilience, creating a wildlife corridor, increased biodiversity, soil replenishment, and edible produce. It's surprising how tall trees can grow in only ten years! Hazel for Coppice and Nuts Pam is growing several different blocks of hazel for various purposes, including coppicing for making hurdles and other useful structures, and using the nuts for making hazelnut oil and other edibles. We learn about the difference between cobnuts and filberts, and how coppicing benefits the landscape. Growing a Woodland: The Tree Nursery Pam shows us round the community tree nursery, explaining why growing from local seed is better than shipping from commercial tree nurseries located elsewhere, and the different types of trees that will go on to be planted in the new woodland on her land, and wherever the trees are needed around the nearby town of Ashburton. Owning a Woodland: Sharing Health Does it make you feel better to have spent time in the woods? As a woodland owner, Pam at Higher Druid Wood in Devon noticed the positive changes in herself from spending time working and being on the land, feeling stronger and healthier both mentally and physically. So she decided to invite the local community to come and join her, so they could feel better, too. From forest schools to women's groups, sharing health, sharing skills, and shared experiences by sharing land – this is a film about nurturing good health and offering that experience to others in a way that helps create a ripple effect of benefits into the wider world. If you go down to the woods today... you might just hear a special performance by Concord Clarinets of the classic Teddybear's Picnic in a woodland near Bristol. East Devon artist and musician Matt Calder turns sculptural forms using spalted beech and sycamore, inspired by his experience of Japanese ceramics. Matt has a particular passion for "things inside things inside things..." originally inspired by his wife's pregnancy, and in this film he makes an egg form. A film by Jemma Cholawo with music by Matt Calder: www.calderart.co.uk A kuksa is a traditional Scandinavian bowl or cup. Here in the dappled sunlight of Sallerton Wood in West Devon, Andy Morton shows us how to make one! Another film sponsored by Woodlands TV. Chainsaw artist Ella Fielding created this phoenix sculpture for a school in Mitcham while the pupils were away on half term. Ella started carving ten years ago with the Tree Pirates, and she is now a full time sculptor and mother of two young children. As an artist, she thinks in 3D, and after some brief sketches to demonstrate her idea, Ella uses the form of the wood to guide her instinctively, working with the grain, the knots, any nails and rock pockets becoming part of the finished piece. You can see more of her work on Instagram @ella.fielding.sculptor. For those who are missing the annual wood fairs this year, here's Ian Sanders making tree tables at the Oak Fair last year. Have you ever wanted to just take your cat and a tent and be alone in the woods for a while? Lola did! I met her in the woods on the Falkland Estate in Fife, beginning a new carving project. This is her first carving in a while, and she was feeling inspired to practice her skills and enjoy the peace and solitude of working with wood in the woodland, while camping in a bell tent with her adventurous cat, Mushu.
There's nothing I love to film more than the skilled hands of a craftsperson. Here is a short film I made for Cradle to Grave willow coffins.
Cradle to Grave from Jemma Cholawo on Vimeo. A film about starting your first period and what to expect. Made for Bell House as part of their series of educational period events for parents and daughters. I was invited to the Falkland Estate in Fife to visit two different hutters and learn more about hut life. |
