Bata-ville around the world

Because we distribute our film Bata-ville (2005) we have a very direct contact line to the people who buy it. I always drop them a line to see how they heard about it and sometimes the responses are fascinating, a couple of weeks ago Carol Williams sent us this message:

I am very moved by your film. 

As one of the characters says, there's a mystery there--the sense of many answers, but we don't yet know the questions. I think that is a very good way for a film to leave you. The questions rise up on their own.

The after-effects of Bata is a rich subject to have chosen (or been chosen by). What a wonderful way to frame a journey in search of community, creativity, home, mechanization, meaningful work. To ask: are we afraid of the future? (And how scary was the past?—What were the results 'on the ground' of this ambitious experiment in living and working and how have people negotiated the inevitable paradoxes?).

I thought the film beautifully made. And photographed. The faces will stay with me, as will the views from the bus, and the people singing. (Your air hostess uniforms were just the right touch.) The portraits and conversations you filmed go to the heart of the matter, as does your eloquent filming of the built landscape in Maryport, East Tilbury, and Zlin.

I saw the film before my own journey to East Tilbury where I am going in March, in search of the buildings my father, Bronek Katz, designed there in the 1950s. It makes a wonderful preparation. I will write again after I have been there.

Thank you again for your careful and inspired work. The film was an important experience for me, as I am sure it was for others who don't have Bata histories. Understanding what worked and what didn't in the past and presenting it with imagination and compassion is, I think, a good way not to be afraid of the future.

Best wishes, Carol Williams New York, USA.

Apparently like others Carol 'found' the film at the right time for her ... which for us is a very nice feeling as the project continues to feel live. In fact, there's shortly going to be a new public screening in London at the RIBA as part of their A place to call home programme. It will be on the 27th of March at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD at 18.30. Tomorrow night also features a talk there about East Tilbury - 'A Place Called Bata-ville'.

Posted Monday 27th February, 2012 at 10:57 am by Nina

Somewhere in Largs

We spent a nice few days doing a test shoot for a new project  -  thanks to my brother Mark for this nice picture.

Posted Saturday 18th February, 2012 at 9:16 pm by Karen

Valentines Day Somewhere ...

I just put a posting about these lovely images on the What Will The Harvest Be? blog, but as I uploaded such a valentines-style image I thought I'd pop one on here too for the broader Somewhere romantically inclined readers x

Posted Tuesday 14th February, 2012 at 5:51 pm by Nina

It's a shop knockout

Just posted photos of t-shirts dug out of the Somewhere loft into the shop...all 'vintage' from the 2003 'It's an East End Knockout' competition. Taking pictures in parks of my friends in large t-shirts is just one of my many lovely intern tasks!

Posted Monday 13th February, 2012 at 3:10 pm

Many Internet Miles with this Modem

For various reasons personal and work related Karen and I are spending a lot of time going through old boxes. The ones in my loft have been there for 10 years, before I got them out I thought "I haven't seen these things in 10 years - how much can I need them". As I took this modem back out of the bin tonight I thought "quite a lot it seems".

The trouble is what to most people might look like loads of boxes of redundant technology looks to me like the much loved friends with which we explored the early alleyways on the Internet. I have dialled up from bed and breakfast all around Scotland on this modem during some of the happiest times in my work career to date. I can hear the sound it makes just looking at it's grey form. It even features in the Horizon documentary about 'A Hypertext Journal' - directed & shot by a team we'd then never met but who are now close friends and often our sound and camera team!

At the risk of becoming boring on this topic it might become a series over the next few days ... I just found our first digital camera, the Apple quicktake and my 'Cyberia Women in technology Award' for "Internet Woman" - I'm not joking. It's a heady mix the combination of re-digitising your archive, lots of dust and random ephemera that is working from home when you're a hoarder.

Posted Monday 30th January, 2012 at 7:00 pm by Nina

National Garden Scheme Open Day/s 2012

We're superproud to announce that our What Will the Harvest Be? garden at Abbey Gardens in East London opens this year under the charity banner for the prestigious National Garden Scheme.

The date is Saturday Sept. 8th, there will be loads to see and do, and much excellent cake, of course, so please save the date - more details here.

Karen's own garden up in the Lake District is also open under the NGS this year - on Sunday Sept. 2nd. A bit tricker to get to than Abbey Gardens but well worth the journey, it's a mountainside utopia of pigs, bees, fruit and veg with a lot of rain and some art thrown in for good measure. More details here.

Posted Saturday 28th January, 2012 at 12:05 pm by Karen

Welcome to Somewhere, Anne

2012 has brought us a lovely new intern, Anne Carlin, a film student from the US. Anne is taking a class in London and will be with us two days a week till the spring. She's taking on all manner of Somewhere jobs from media management to transcribing to  - most impressive of all - willingly going to the Hackney post office for us.

Posted Tuesday 24th January, 2012 at 9:40 am by Karen

Happy 2012! - The Somewhere Round Robin

Mercifully blogged to you, not emailed!

2011 was quite busy for the Somewhere girls...The year was dominated by the unexpected delight of the Floating Cinema, working for the first time with the wonderful Up and Studio Weave Architects. The transformed barge became a summer hit (well, unless it was pouring with rain) and travelled as far as the canals would allow it with great films, performances and talks. It was a time to (occasionally) despair at the technical meltdown a cinema on a boat can produce, and also to meet some longstanding heroes such as Iain Sinclair and Richard Mabey, and to screen some rare artists films and doc gems. The website - by our longterm collaborator Dorian Fraser-Moore is a delight and very clever too BTW. We remain in deep negotiation to bring the Cinema back for 2012 - wish us luck.

We also showed some work relating to our ongoing pedigree cat project at the Beijing International Design Triennial and the Wellcome Trust in London. We got involved with the brilliant Doc Alliance, where you can now download our first film Bata-ville, and our installation Home-made Heroes was returned home after a marathon 9-year international tour by the Barbican! We had a few almost-rans with nice collaborators public works and we made that and hope we can work together in the future tho' twas not to be this time round.

2012 holds some big stuff  - the premiere (we don't know where or when but watch this space) of Jaywick Escapes, our third documentary film, and then we'll be releasing it on Download and DVD. Perhaps a 2012 Floating Cinema ?! Some nice smaller stuff too is happening - kicking off with a January screening in Manchester by the fabulously-named Loiterers Resistance Movement of our first film, Bata-ville, on January 26th at the Manchester Metroplitan University. If Karen has the technology she might do a Skype Directors Q & A after.

The Finnish Institute is revisiting our 2002 webcast TV swansong in a new publication that re-contextualises artists' TV ten years later and in the Youtube / iPlayer world we now inhabit.  We are also welcoming an American intern to our desks in 2012, so all our pencils will be sharp and our diaries well organised. 

There's also apparently some big sports thing happening right by the garden (What Will the Harvest Be?) that we designed in East London, so that's no doubt going to bring a few more visitors and gardeners our way during what will be our third harvest there.

Good luck with all your own endeavours this year, and remember you can sign up for occasional and witty e-news here or visit us via Facebook here.

Posted Tuesday 3rd January, 2012 at 12:54 pm by Karen

Floating Cinema - Micro doc

You can now see the very nice short film Britt Hatzius has put together of our summer with the Floating Cinema here.

Posted Wednesday 28th December, 2011 at 6:50 pm by Nina

Star screening success

We recently enjoyed showing our finished 'Jaywick Escapes' film privately to contributor Mac and his family - they were all very happy which made us very happy!

Posted Saturday 3rd December, 2011 at 4:37 pm by Karen