Frome on Film – Residents imagine the town’s future

Five films made by local residents premiered to a full house at Victoria Park recently and will return as part of an event in September.

The films were created through the Civic Imaginary Partnerships research project, which has spent the past year working with people across Frome to explore how residents think, feel, dream about and sense the town’s future.

Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the national project also works with communities in Chester, Glasgow, Hull and Southampton.

In Frome, the team has been popping up across the town – from the Key Centre and Boulder Rooms to Frome College, the Football Club, RISE, Edventure, the Silk Mill and Town Hall. Alongside the films, researchers have collected oral histories, run creative workshops and talked with people involved in many different parts of Frome’s civic life.

From Frome stories to the big screen

Working with filmmaker John Sealey of Exeter-based Fabians Film Company, participants took part in a series of workshops to develop their filmmaking skills before creating their own short films.

However, the aim was about much more than learning to make films.

Instead of simply asking people what they think should happen in Frome, filmmaking offered a way to explore more personal and imaginative questions: What matters about the town? What is changing? What should be protected? And what different futures can people imagine?

The five films premiered to a full house at the Victoria Park Community Café pop-up cinema as part of the Frome International Climate Film Festival on 15th August. The films offered different perspectives of life in Frome, on questions of community, belonging, environmental change and the everyday places and relationships that make the town what it is and what it might yet become. They were made by local residents including Claire Orpin and Ruth King.

After the screening, filmmakers Vanessa Gomez, Alex Hart and Jan Besselink joined researchers Dr Michael Howcroft and Dr Ellen Bishop for a lively audience discussion about making the films and what the stories on screen might tell us about the town’s future.

On being involved in the film project, Jan said, “As I work alone and don’t go out a lot, this project got me a bit more in touch with the Frome community.”

Meanwhile, Vanessa said, “I became completely immersed in the process of filming. It gave me a wonderful space to disconnect, meet lovely people and see my surroundings differently. And last Saturday watching the community embrace and love all our films was such an exciting and rewarding moment.”

Next chance: The ForEm

There will be another chance to see the films on Saturday 19th September, from 10am to 6pm, when the research team takes over the Silk Mill for The ForEm – a free, one-day pop-up fete of ideas, performances, games, films and artworks.

Organisers say, “Created with Frome-based artist Kate Keara Pelen, who has been commissioned to work alongside the research team, The ForEm will invite people to play with the stories we tell (and are told) about Frome: its independence, creativity and community spirit, but also its challenges, contradictions and changing identities.

“Think village fete meets research exhibition meets Speakers’ Corner with a large dose of Frome thrown in.”

More details will be revealed over the coming weeks, and you can read more here: https://civicimaginaries.gla.ac.uk/welcome-to-the-forem/

Pictured: Film showing in Victoria Park