Dulwich OnView has brought together two creative minds from different backgrounds. Steve Slack writes here about the public launch of their collaborative project involving film-making and museum displays.
Laverne Hunt is a local film-maker, working with young people to create meaningful and relevant pieces of visual art. Her most recent project with her charity Media Community Network – working with a group of Latin American teenagers from the Aylesbury Estate in south London – was featured in a recent DOV article. The film – a documentary about life on the estate during the regeneration process – is now complete and was launched earlier this week.
Chap-a-lino
Part of the film includes a short silent movie, made by the participants in the project, based around local East Street resident and film hero Charlie Chaplin. The title Chap-a-lino is a play on this local film heritage and the participants’ Latin American backgrounds.
And very cleverly this ‘silent’ movie has modern urban music underneath it. Something which sounds peculiar, but in fact works really well.
This week these young film-makers and selected guests were invited to the BFI Southbank to see their work shown on the big screen for the first time.
This is where the collaboration comes in. Laverne and I were introduced via DOV after we read eachother’s work online. We met up for coffee and hit it off straight away. Over the past few months I’ve been working with Laverne to create a small exhibition (more accurately, a table-top display) to sit alongside her most recent film.
Exhibit on display at the BFI
The exhibit features props used in the silent movie and some objects sourced from the project participants, helping to explain Latin American culture and heritage. So, there’s a Chaplin bowler hat and police whistle alongside flamboyant carnival decorations and flyers for reggaton gigs.
This display is small enough to fit on a table top and is easily transportable from venue to venue. All the units come apart from one another, so this display can be changed each time it gets shown; Laverne can just take a couple of boxes with her if she’s going to a school, community centre or library to screen her film. Or just the panels, shown here behind the box units. We’ve always wanted to keep it as simple and adaptable as possible.
It’s been a real eye-opener for me, learning about a new culture here in London and it’s been great fun putting the display together.
Laverne says:
“The screening at the BFI was brilliant for all concerned, particularly the young participants that could see themselves on the big screen. They could see the delight of the audience and were genuinely moved by people’s reactions. Overall for me, after a tremendous amount of hard work and preparation, the Media Community Network Limited methodology is beginning to be understood.”
So, many thanks to DOV for putting us in touch with each other. We’ve both learned a great deal from one another and are currently thinking about how we might work together in the future.
We hope to bring the display to Dulwich Picture Gallery for one of the late night openings, later in the year.
