I’ve just come back from a short trip to Bochum, a city in the Ruhr region with a wonderful art museum, which had invited me to make a film together with elderly ladies from the care home! All as part of an exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of Bochum’s Stadtpark / City Park!
It was exhausting but brilliant. We had little time (they get tired quickly) and the weather was absolutely dreadful: cold and rainy. Nevertheless, the ladies were lovely; they were really keen to do something out of the ordinary, put on their hoods and hats, and came out with us to the nearby park.
They were curious; some of them remembered Super 8 from the past, but it was more a case of “My husband always used to do that!”, so the barrier to trying it themselves was quite high – an old, vague fear of not doing something properly came to the surface.
But my two wonderful colleagues, Chiaki and Olivia, and I are masters at dispelling fears, and we eventually convinced them that you can simply pick up a camera and try something new. And it’s fun!
We filmed two film cassettes (black & white Kodak TriX film) and, on the second day of the workshop, developed them with fruit and magnolia blossom soup that we’d chopped and cooked together! Deliciously fragrant fun! And a powerful developer!
And: the films turned out well: lots of cool and beautiful scenes. Now they’re being digitised and I’ll finish the film. Plus sound. Exhibition opening: 24 April!
